govols1

I just heard that the South channel is opening. Hope ships can use it. 

I’ve not received any notice from NCL but looking at the port of Miami webcam shows the ships outside the port. This will be a mess. We’re due to leave today also.  

7 day Breakaway 11/27/22 $299/pp. crazy.  

We are Sunday's departure and this is wonderful news.  Prayers lifted up for continued safety, not only on this cruise but all future ones.

We are cruising on the Breakaway December 12th. I have a reservation at both the Hilton Riverside and the Marriott Warehouse Arts. Any thoughts on which is better. We won’t arrive till mid day Saturday so not doing much more than going to dinner somewhere. We ate at Peche last time and enjoyed it. I know parking rates apply at both. Hoping to park at the port this trip as last time cruising from MSY we used Fulton Street garage and it was a bit of pain. 
Thanks in advance for any guidance you have. So happy to be cruising again.  

NCL Breakaway review

Nov 25th-Dec 6th 2018

My wife and I are both 56 and are veteran cruisers.  We took our very first cruise from New Orleans in 1997 on the HAL Nieuw Amsterdam with our two kids who were 9 and 11 at the time. We had an ocean view cabin which meant we had a porthole and I can distinctly recall it being underwater as we cruised through the ocean!!  

Fast forward to the Breakaway.  It is a large ship with about 3900+ passengers and 1700 crew.  This was an 11 day Western Caribbean cruise that starts with two sea days and then seven ports and one more sea day before returning to New Orleans.    Our embarkation process was perfect once we were checked in but the process of getting to the terminal was a little more challenging as there is construction on Convention Center blvd which creates lots of bottlenecks. We drove from Memphis on Saturday and stayed at a Hampton Inn on the West Bank as hotels in the French Quarter were very high as it was Thanksgiving weekend plus there was a Grambling State football game.  We ate dinner at a very romantic French restaurant La Crepe Nanou and it was exceptional.  Look it up and give it a try.  You will be happy you did.

On Sunday we found a non-denominational church to visit before heading to the port to drop our bags before heading to the Fulton place parking lot.  We had prepaid for 11 nights at $206.50.  Once we parked we went downstairs to wait for the shuttle.  This was the worst part of our day as it was disorganized and took about 90 minutes to get to port.  Once we arrived and showed our documents and passports we went to the area where folks were waiting.  By the time we arrived they were not assigning boarding numbers as we were used too in the past and there were already several hundred people in the seating area.  I overheard someone in uniform say they were boarding in rows so my wife and made an end-around and went to the very back of the first row and went right onto the ship.  Praise God and be observant. 🤗  

Day one New Orleans 

We were aboard about 1245pm and went to O’Sheenan’s for lunch.  I had the hot wings (fried in batter) with buffalo sauce and my wife had chicken fajitas.  They were both average at best so we did not enjoy lunch.  After we finished, the announcement was made that the cabins were ready.  We had gone through the upgrade process and had won (bid was $175.00 per person) a spa balcony cabin (14704) which was way forward.  

Unfortunately our first set of keys did not work so back down to the 6th floor I went for a replacement set of keys.  It was about a 15 minute wait in line to accomplish this.  Back up to the 14th floor I went.  I needed steps as I was way short having been in the car for six hours yesterday. As I tried my second set of keys, guess what?  Yep they didn’t work either so very begrudgingly I headed back to the reception desk.  This time I did not have to wait in line as I was met by a concierge type person who took my keys to the desk and said someone would go with me this time.  I was escorted by Ginger (but she wanted to take the elevator 🤔).  These keys also did not work!!!  Not a very happy camper.  Ginger let us into our room and said she would get this resolved.  After waiting another 30-45 minutes someone showed up with keys that worked.  It was now about 315pm and the muster drill was scheduled for 330pm so downstairs to O’Sheenans I headed to meet my wife who had previously headed downstairs instead of waiting with me.  

The muster drill took about 45 minutes after which we were free to explore the ship. Did I tell you this was a big ship?  There are 3964 passengers onboard.  It is but except for embarkation day everything flowed nicely. 

One criticism is their theater is too small for a ship this big.  One very important suggestion is to pre-register for as many shows and restaurants as possible as many sell out if you wait to get onto the ship.   We ate dinner in the buffet on our first night.  There were plenty of options and we were both satisfied. 

Day two/three sea days

One of our specialty restaurants was Moderno and it was amazing. The salad bar alone was worth the price of admission and as we had 4 specialty dining venues, there was no additional charge.  

Day four Ocho Rios

We arrived at the James Bond Pier and had a short walk to get into town.  After a delicious breakfast at the Garden Cafe we strolled into town and paid $3.00 per person to get on Ocho Rios beach which was cheap and accommodating.  There were the typical hawkers trying to get you to buy boat rides, glass bottom rides and various other items, both legal and illicit drugs.  We spent a couple of hours lounging on the beach and I went snorkeling and saw lots of fish, the largest of which was about 16 inches long.   Not sure what variety it was but it was cool to see.  I know there will be much better snorkeling in the days to come.  Ocho Rios is mostly know for the Dunn’s River Falls excursion and it seemed that lots of cruisers headed that way.  There was one other ship in port with us and that was the NCL Pearl.  They had the better dock but it maybe because of our size.

Cagney’s for dinner was delicious. My wife has food allergies and they have exceeded her expectations thus far.  After a relaxing afternoon by the pool we went to the thermal suite and relaxed and chilled some more.  If you enjoy a more secluded and intimate spa experience, please consider either upgrading to spa cabins or just outright purchasing the Thermal Spa Package once onboard.  

Day five Georgetown Grand Cayman

We arrived at the tender station around 730am and they made an announcement offering anyone not having a tender ticket the ability to get off first.  We had group “A” and they were announced next which could have meant if you want to be off the ship at 8am then get group A-B-C-C as they were first even before the excursions which surprised me.  Guess I am not an early bird as I am on vacation and was barely up at 8am.  On to breakfast we go.  After breakfast we went and prepped for a beach day.  We had wanted to do one of three snorkeling excursions but they were all cancelled due to water conditions. Evidently the fronts coming from the west caused issues. We ended up leaving the ship at 930am in a very effortless tendering process. Once ashore we found one of the local busses which cost $2.50 per person and we headed to one of the public beaches on seven mile beach.  The temp was 80 but pretty overcast.  The locals charged us $15.00 for two chairs and an umbrella.  Our contribution to the local economy.  There were three ships in port: Breakaway, Carnival Dream and an MSC ship that I forget the name of.

GCM is known for stingray city, scuba diving and gorgeous Snow White beaches. It should be on everyone’s list of ports to visit at least one in your lifetime.  There are all the major resorts on 7 mile beach.  Because Grand Cayman is so small everything is imported which makes it pretty expensive but it’s still a must visit.  Dinner tonight was at La Cacinna which is set up as a romantic Italian restaurant. The food in my opinion was average.  As it was part of our meal package we did not have to pay what would have been a $69.00 tab.  When you get the dining and/or beverage packages tips are already added into the charge.  I have seen lots of debate about the “free” packages not truly being free.  Yes that’s true but you just need to do some simple math to determine if it’s a value for you.  After all the perks that were added for us it became a reasonable upcharge.  I think it ended up costing us about an additional $36.00 PPPD for the drink package and 4 specialty dining venues.  Just do the math to determine if it makes financial sense to you.  I will say I stalked the NCL site watching for a price drop and because this cruise was between Thanksgiving and Christmas and was an 11 day cruise, it was a soft sailing until almost the week prior to the cruise. 

We ended up enjoying live music from the Tenors of Rock in Syd Norman’s.  There was plenty of entertainment available in several venues.  These included the Barricade Boys vocal group, Levity Entertainment group which is comedy and the always popular karaoke.  

Day six Roatan Honduras

We docked about 930am and were given the go ahead to depart at 10am.  Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras and is about 35 miles by 3 miles wide.  It lies 40 miles off the coast.  We docked at Coxen Hole which is also called Roatan Town. It’s famous for eco tours, diving, snorkeling,caves,botanical gardens and beaches.  Only one ship can moor at Coxen.  The other port on the island is Mahogany Bay and it can handle two ships docked.  High season in the islands started last week and they will have an average of 10-13 cruise ships per week until the season ends.  

We exited the ship and walked through the port area of shops and more trinkets and junk as one of my meeting managers used to refer to most tourist spots.  He always cracked me up and he is now enjoying retirement. We found a taxi to take us to West Bay Beach.  We negotiated a price of $20.00  but somehow that did not get to our driver so we ended up paying $25.00 round trip.  We had a brief tour from “Sam” our taxi driver who advised us he was born and raised Roatan.  He was not married and had two boys, one 2 and the other 8.  He was nice enough and we were comfortable all day.  He took us to a resort that I’m sure they have a deal with.  It was the “Paradise Beach Hotel” and for $20.00 per person we had access to two chairs, Wifi and all the pools and bathrooms and restaurants.  We could have also gone with the all-inclusive package at $65.00 per person which included all the food and alcohol you can drink but seeing as we have access to that on the ship, we went with the $20 option.  There were lots of cruisers here and at the far end of the beach was a coral reef with wonderful snorkeling and lots of fish and scenery so I was a happy camper as Cayman conditions were not up to their normal standards. We ended up spending three hours on the beach which was plenty as the sun was serious here.  After making it back to the ship we went to the garden cafe for a lunch and then headed to the thermal suite for some serious relaxation. Back to the cabin for showers and freshening up for a night on the town as it is “Friday” everywhere.  

Tonight’s entertainment options range from “Escape the big top, Ryan Joyce Comedy Hypnosis show, howl at the moon dueling pianos and Rock the Pour House with the house band-“The  Guilty Pleasures”.  

One thing that we don’t need on this cruise but we will in the future is the kids programs.  NCL has the Guppies which is for 0-2 years old, NN names and ages here......

We had an appetizer before dinner tonight at Wasabi which is the sushi restaurant here.  Most rolls are between $5.00 and $7.50 and are well worth the cost.  Dinner was in the Manhattan room and was good.  Cathy had tilapia and I had chicken and seafood paella. After dinner we went music bar hopping and  headed to bed about midnight. 

Day seven Belize City, Belize.

We arrived at the tender station around 730am and were scheduled to start tendering at 8am but it was about 830 by the time the tenders started departing.  We used the local tenders which accommodated about 200 per tender.  The top five shore excursions here are -Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, -Barrier reef snorkel and beach escape, -Island beach break, -Zipline adventure and cave tubing and -Lamanai Ruins and river safari.  My wife and I have not yet done the eco tourism thing so although we know Belize is a great option for this, we just walked around the Downtown area.  We walked to the lighthouse and the BELIZE sign and happened upon a “yoga” day-long outdoor seminar so we checked out the displays and spent about 30 minutes there.  We then walked to the central business district and it turns out there was a Big sale/festival in the downtown area so it was very busy with locals getting their bargains.  In the port area we were continually asked if we wanted a tour or taxi to the beach and we politely declined and they said have a nice day and left us alone but they were lots of them hawking tours and trips to the beach.  Maybe next time.  After spending a couple of hours in town, we shopped for some trinkets and junk and made our way back to the tenders and back to the ship for lunch in the garden cafe.  They had good variety and the food was good.  The lunch time options included Indian, burgers,hot dogs, chicken cooked several ways, different sandwiches every day, salads of all types although there was never any romaine due to the recall.  Caesar salads were done with spinach.  There were always lots of dessert options including ice cream and soft serve machines 24/7.  

This afternoon was a sunbathing day by the pool.  Tonight we are heading to Ocean Blue for dinner which we should be able to use our last “comp” dining package.  

When using the dining package in Ocean Blue there is a $12.00 p.p. Upcharge which is well worth it.  Dinner was amazing.  We both had appetizers.  I had the stone crab claws and Cathy had the Alaskan king crab claws.  We both had surf and turf (8 oz filet and a lobster tail).  Cathy had her usual “standing order” dessert and I had flourless chocolate cake with ice cream.  Yum yum.  Tonight’s entertainment included Cirque, comedy, dueling pianos, and a sizzling Latin party.  After dinner we followed the music and ended up back in the room about 1230am.  

Day eight Harvest Caye Belize

Harvest Caye was created in 2016 and is NCL’s private island.  It’s a 75 acre oasis featuring an expansive pool with swim-up bar, salt-water lagoon for water sports, a seven acre beach and plenty of shore excursion options including a zip line and snorkeling the worlds 2nd largest barrier reef.  The top excursions all seemed to revolve around the Mayan ruins.  All the F&B on the island is extra and can be charged to your ship board account.  The sun was very hot again today so we were careful not to get burned and returned back to the ship after about three hours of fun and sun.  

We made our way to the garden cafe and had another enjoyable lunch and started the drink of the day trip, which is a Long Island Iced tea.  We spent a couple of hours in the thermal spa enjoying the amenities and relaxing.  Cruising can certainty be a stress free environment if you allow it to happen.  We still see lots of people that are just mean and ugly and think their issues are first world problems.  

Tonight’s entertainment lineup includes the Rock of Ages vocal group, Cirque Dreams and Dinner Jungle Fantasy.  We had Cirque pre-reserved so dinner and show at 8pm tonight.  We plan on hitting a couple of bars prior to dinner.  The two other events are the Levity comedy group and an 80’s party at 10pm at spice h2O which is a cool venue on the aft deck 16.  There are also the standard singers and games led by the cruise staff.  I can’t even tell you the name of the cruise director so that shows what an impact he has made on me!  One negative about cruising is no college football is shown.  They show some NFL games but no NCAA.  

Cirque was amazing.  The performers were all amazing and talk about strength and agility.  It’s worth the price of admission.  The show starts at 8pm so I would suggest getting there about 7-715pm to get the better seats.  It’s a relatively small venue so there are no bad seats.  The meal is a set meal of prisuchito(sp), steak and shrimp and a dessert trio.  Dinner lasts 45 minutes and then the show is 45 minutes. After dinner I went to the cigar lounge and then we had drinks on one of the waterfront bars.  The waterfront wraps around lots of the venues on deck 8 and is a very enjoyable spot for a walk or to relax with friends in the fresh outdoor sea air.   We headed back to the room about midnight.      

Day nine Costa Maya Mexico

We arrived to the dock and were cleared to depart about 810am.  Our plan today is to take a taxi to Mahahual, which is a fishing village about 2-3 miles from the dock.  There are several restaurants and beach bars that are very reasonably priced.   Once we exited the port area we took a $4.00 pp shuttle to Mahahual.  It’s changed a lot since our first visit here about 13 years ago but it’s still quaint.  We walked the boardwalk and settled at Nonoch Kay also known as Big Fish restaurant & bar.  My wife had a $20.00/hour massage on the beach and she enjoyed it thoroughly.  We had some beer and snacks and spent 2-3 hours there before heading back to the ship.  It was a great day to reminisce about our past adventures there.  We enjoyed some more music tonight and ate dinner at Taste which is one of the included dining venues.   One of my criticisms is with the “Tenors of Rock” show.  They only have one set and they play 4 or 5 times which sucks as in my opinion a headliner should have multiple sets available, especially considering the quality of NCL entertainment in general.  We ended up back in our cabin about 1230am.  One thing I don’t think I have shared is that the garden cafe has theme dinners each night.  They have offered Asian, Mexican, Italian, Indian, Mardi Gras and a couple more that I just cannot remember.  

The highlighted shore excursions are a catamaran cruise and snorkel, Chacchoben Mayan ruins tour and a Salsa cooking and dancing with beach break.  

Day ten Cozumel, Mexico 

We arrived at the dock at 8am and we were allowed to depart then.  We had a leisurely breakfast in the garden cafe and then went shopping for vanilla and some souvenirs. The sun was hot today so we opted to just shop.  My wife lost a silver bracelet the last time she was in Costa Maya and guess what?  She replaced it today.  It was a nice silver rope bracelet that she was able to bargain for and get it for more than half the original quote.  We finished our shopping and went back to the ship to drop off our goodies before heading back out to get some lunch ashore.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant on the square and were nicely taken care of.  

Breakaway from New Orleans 11/25 11 night. Had confirmed balcony and had bids in for spa balcony,mini-suite spa balcony and 3 different haven rooms.  Was upgraded to spa balcony for $175/pp.  not getting haven saved lots of $$ to spend elsewhere on ship.  Just a few more days now!!!  😂🤣

Was the cruise originally a distinguished voyage?  If so, it included additional perks. 

Which of the 22 bars is your favorite and why??

Going on my first NCL cruise from New Orleans November 25th.  Can anyone share any secrets or favorite spots or must do activities?  We have UBC and specialty dining packages and have upgrade requests for all 3 spa room categories.  

Thanks in advance.   

About to do our longest to date. 11 days on the Breakaway from New Orleans 11/25. Previous longest was 8 days on Caribbean Princess from NY to SJU.  

Thank you very much for the suggestions and input. Greatly appreciated. We are on the Nov 25-Dec 6th cruise. When I login to MYNCL it shows Ocean Blue as $12.00. I am assuming that would be the upcharge based on using one of our "credits"? My wife has significant food allergies (gluton-celiac-no sugar-no grains-etc-etc) so always have to be extra careful when dining out. So far we have reservations at Cagneys, Moderno, La Cucina and Teppanyaki. Sounds like Le Bistro and Ocean Blue may need to be adjusted/added.

Although I have never cruised on NCL, my DW has been on NCL as a friend of hers had booked a cruise last year and her husband passed away prior to the cruise and she asked my wife to join her and she said NCL took great care of her food issues.

I will be taking my first cruise on NCL soon. We are on an 11 day cruise from New Orleans on the Breakaway. We were able to upgrade our balcony to include UBP and 4 specialty dining dinners. My question of the day is if you were going to eat in 4 specialty dining venues, which would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

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Thanks for the update. There were also some reviews on the Andaz being loud. The Wyndham is also in the same price range. Seems like a slow time for the hotels as they are all more reasonable than similar hotels in FLL. My wife has food allergies so meat and seafood work best. Which local steaks/seafood would you suggest? Thanks.

Hi. We are arriving in SAN on Friday 11-25 for one night. MS Westerdam on Saturday. Looking at Hyatt Andaz or the Hard Rock Hotel for Friday night. About $135 each. we will uber to the hotel and probably also to the ship. any one have any thoughts on preferences for the above hotels? Favorite restaurants in the area?

Thank You!

Some facts about us. Happily married. Have cruised 17 times but who is counting. We seem to cruise most on HAL as we enjoy classic ships. My DW loves the lower promenade for walking and I must say I also enjoy smoking a cigar on the back watching the wake of the ship. Plus late at night it's pretty deserted and she can power walk with no one in her path. We are both 53 and enjoy cruising as we feel it's the best value for our hard earned $$. This is our first time on Celebrity. They offered a $150 per person OBC plus the dates and price seemed to work for us.

We flew into MIA on the Friday after Thanksgiving as we have learned it's always best to fly into port the day before you cruise. Too stressful to travel on the same day as sailing.

We stayed at Hyatt Place airport east, which was basic, nice and close to airport and cruise port. A full breakfast was included. You could pay for shuttle to airport but we chose to arrive a day early to enjoy MIA. Went to total wine and Walmart for provisions and wine. Celebrity allows a bottle of wine per person.

We drove around the city and checked it out. Wanted to go to Joes Stone Crab but it was slammed. We ended up parking a block or so away and found a take-out seafood called My Ceviche and they had fresh stone crabs. Ending up getting a salad for my DW and three tacos for me and 1 pound of stone crabs to share. I think there were 7 or 8 claws nicely cracked for us. Dinner was $50.00 for all the above which I am sure was 1/4 of what Joes would have cost us. Highly recommend it.

Rented a car from National which worked well for us. Also included a free shuttle to the port which worked well. This was out first cruise on celebrity. I was not sure what to expect all around. When we arrived at the port for checkin, we entered the line about 12noon and there was a long line. Much different from HAL as once you were in line and made it through the maze and were checked in, you went right to the ship instead of going to another holding area which was nice. We had a balcony guarantee and ended up with a 2b category which I understand was a decent upgrade. We were assigned cabin 7144 which was forward. The balcony seemed smaller when we first arrived but in writing this review was more than adequate. The bathroom was reasonable and the shower seemed bigger than we had previously had. Our cabin stewards took good care of us. They serviced the cabin twice a day.

Our cruise was an eastern Caribbean cruise with three ports. After an on-time departure at 5pm on Saturday, we sailed to San Juan with a scheduled arrival on Monday at 330pm which essentially gave us two sea days before our arrival. We have been to all the islands on cruise several times previously so we had an idea of what we wanted to do. Our first sea day was nice with temperatures in the 70s but strong winds. It was challenging to read or eat on deck but we did manage ok. Day two was mostly a sea day. We stayed on ships time the entire cruise even though each port observed a time change. With a 330pm arrival that meant it was already 430pm in San Juan which also meant we only had two hours of daylight. Also lots of the stores in old San Juan closed at 5-6pm. We did what we always do in San Juan which is to walk old town. My DW had a short massage ($1.00/minute with a free sangria for me). We then went exploring and ended up back on the ship for dinner, we had the second seating which makes sense for us. We are not yet ready for dinner at 6pm. Still young at heart. We were scheduled to depart for st Thomas at 11pm. If I recall it's about 96 nautical miles which meant we only cruised at about 9 knots. We were the only ship in San Juan. That was not the case in out next two ports. Carnival Glory was moored next to us in st Thomas and the Oasis of the Seas was in sight but not docked where we were.

We had a two top--table 161 which was next to a couple from Toronto. We enjoyed getting to know them. Day three was scheduled for St. Thomas. We had never been to St. John so we elected to do a shore excursion taking a ferry to St. John with a tour of an old sugar cane plantation. After the tour we were dropped off at Trunks Bay which was a very beautiful beach. We spent about two hours on the beach. Took a taxi back to downtown St. John ($6.00 per person) where we had some lunch and shopped for a bit. Nothing impressive about the shopping there but I guess it's just something that you do. I'm a guy--we buy, we don't shop. After we boarded the ferry back to port we spent a few minutes checking out the few stores in the port area. We did not head downtown at we did not have anything on our shopping list. We heard the Megan's beach was closed due to storm damage which would have been where we headed had we not gone to St. John. It's a beautiful beach and reasonable to get a taxi there. We departed on time for out next port-- St. Maarten. It was also a short hop--~111 miles so we again went slow. About 9 knots.

We arrived at about 730am and were cleared to go ashore at 8am. There were 4 other ships in St. Maarten. Oasis of the seas, Celebrity Constellation, Thomson ??, Carnival Glory and some impressive private yachts. One was a $400 million yacht. Impressive does not give it justice. Having been here before we knew that a short walk into town would allow us to hop on the local busses. $2.00 per person to get to Maho beach, better know as airplane beach. We arrived about 1030am ship time which was 1130am local time. Just in time to see several jets land and one jet take off. We had been before so had seen them landing previously but it's still very impressive to see them land. What we had not experienced was a jet takeoff. WOW is about all I can say. I was positioned with gopro in hand ready to a video. My wife was on the beach chilling but what we did not realize was she was directly in the line of fire of the jet engines. She was not a very happy camper as she and everything that we brought with us was covered in sand. She yelled a few choice cuss words at me and said never again, which I understand. Advice. Don't be on the beach directly in line with the runway. You will be blown away. After spending a couple of hours on the beach we walked towards the casino to catch the bus back to town. Again another $2.00 per person. Make sure to allow about one hour getting back to the port as traffic is terrible. Once back in Phillipsburg we walked by the beach and had a couple of drinks before heading back to the ship. My wife had to work hard to get all the sand out of her hair and every part of her body that was exposed. We have eaten in the Opus dining room every night so decided to eat in the Oceanview cafe tonight as they had promoted an Elton John impressionist in the showroom. He was decent but not great. After the show we had a couple of drinks before heading back to the cabin.

Celebrity, and I am sure all the cruise lines, promote all-inclusive drink packages as it appeared there was lots of drinking taking place in all the bars and poolside. The premium package was $69.00 per person per day. Do the math to decide if it's worth it to you. If you like to drink all day and all night then it's a no brainer. We only drink at night so not worth it to me.

We ate breakfast every day in the Oceanview cafe. We enjoy sitting on the back deck and eating our breakfast and lunch when not ashore. Tonight is the last formal night in Celebrity history. They are moving to smart chic, whatever that is. I wear my tux when I cruise. No skin off my nose but the wife loves to dress up and makes me do the same. The cruise ends with two sea days. I seem to recall its 1086 nautical miles from St Maarten to MIA which means we cruise at about 20 knots. We have a specialty dinner scheduled for Friday.

Cruising seems to go way too fast. We look forward to longer cruises but will have to settle for 7-9 day cruises until we are blessed enough to retire when we will be able to see more of the world from a cruise ship!!!!

We were assigned group 4 (walking off the ship at about 730am) for debarkation and this was by far the quickest process of getting off the ship, claiming our bags and going through customs ever. It took all of about 15 minutes. A $27.00 taxi ride (flat rate) and we were checked in for our ride home. All good things must come to an end.

Overall I would rate our first Celebrity cruise as excellent. Now we just have to plan for our next cruise!

This is our first time in Montreal. We arrive late on Friday evening (midnight) and sail on Saturday around 4pm. We will only have a few hours to sightsee. What would you suggest? We also need to get some wine to bring on-board. We are going to be staying at either the Hyatt or Marriott and wont have a car. Are there stores in close proximity and whats your favorite place to pickup some wine?

Thanks

We are on the Ryndam 10-18 from Tampa and were not able to reserve late dinner. Our concern with anytime dining is my wife must eat a gluten free diet and we have never had a problem when we had the same staff for all meals. We plan on talking to the matrie d to request assistance with her diet. Does anyone have any experience with gluten free and anytime dining? Thanks