TMLAalum

OBC or Captain's Club points- either would be fine with me!!

:)

 

Hi we are traveling on RCL to Alesund, Norway and you mentioned a private tour company that does the Path of the Trolls. Do you remember the company and were they good and what was the cost. Our ship wants too much money for the tour.

Robert

Hi Robert-

this link has contacts for private tour companies out of Alesund-

http://www.visitalesund-geiranger.com/en/WHAT-TO-DO/sightseeing/

I've contacted a couple about a Trollstigen tour for us next May, but the road may be impassable at that time of year :(. Both companies have responded to my emails promptly.

PS- Go 12U South Carolina Cal Ripken League State Champs in the regionals this weekend!!

Yesterday, I booked a cruise on Eclipse in May 2015. On an American TA's site it was £152 more than I paid. Booked with a UK online TA through a great ex Celebrity employee who looked after us very well when we booked direct.

Come on over to our roll call if you are on the 7 day Eclipse Fjords!

On Celebrity you can avoid the lines by reserving a time in advance via their website. So if 6 is too early and 8 is too late, you might try 6:45. Showtimes are usually scheduled to coincide with MDR seatings, with the early show accommodating late diners and vice versa.

We've had early dining on all but one of our Celebrity cruises. We finally made "elite" for our last cruise and found it a rush to enjoy the complimentary cocktail hour that began at 5 so that we could arrive in the MDR by 6.

When we did choose Select, I made advance reservations for our party of 6 at varying times depending on our time in port. This gave us time to freshen up before dinner, have a relaxed meal and still enjoy the evening's entertainment.

Yesterday the UK pricing for the lowest veranda on the May 9 Eclipse cruise was 940 GBP per person. The USD pricing was 2325 per person for the same cruise and cabin category.

My recollection is that Icelandair has three classes of seats/service: Saga (first class), economy comfort and economy (coach).

So many airlines, so many cabin classifications! I meant economy comfort using Icelandair terminology!

We got an excellent low price (around $950 RT DEN-KEF-LHR-KEF-DEN) on our tickets in economy when we booked last September. I don't recollect the cost of CE or Saga Class. We are doing a 2 night stopover on the return.

 

Our plan is to have an early dinner at DEN and carry snacks with us. I always pick up a large bottle of water for long flights and supplement with juice and coffee. As we are connecting from KEF to LHR we will probably purchase breakfast --oatmeal-- onboard. We have a car reserved to take us from LHR to Southampton so it will be a very long day.

Sounds like a great plan! Fares for our proposed itinerary are at $966 economy for next May- hoping for a sale to pop up as I seem to recall that Icelandair fares can sometimes be had in the $700-$800 range r/t.

While we enjoyed Blu on our cruise to Bermuda, we didn't meet many people on the ship. It might be nice to eat in the MDR at least some of the nights and try specialty restaurants a few nights.

A great way to meet people is via the Cruise Critic Roll Call for your sailing! Aside from the "Connections" Party sponsored by Celebrity for Cruise Critic members, there are often informal gatherings such as meeting for sail-away or participating in cabin crawls or slot pulls. Also, roll calls are a great place to learn about and join private tours, where you will meet others. And for restaurants like Qsine, where the more the merrier, you might seek other roll call members to join you.

The only time DH & I cruised as a couple we were seated at a table for 2 in the MDR, even though we'd requested to be at a larger one. When our waiter asked where we are from, he introduced us to a couple at a nearby table who happened to be, like us, from a suburb of Cleveland! We've since developed a friendship with them, thanks to Meskut! When we did eat in Blu that cruise (lucked into a SkySuite), we were able to strike up conversations with those seated at adjacent two-toppers.

Re: OV cabin- we had our 1st on our last cruise. We selected 7003 on the Millennium, which was huge. If you make the move to an OV on the Silhouette, you should be elgible for the 1 category Captain's Club upgrade, so I suggest choosing one of the forward-facing Cateogory 7s on Deck 8 (or 7)- these are BIG cabins!!

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT rely on Icelandair to provide you with any drinks.

 

I took the DEN-KEF flight last month and they had one drink service where I got 1/2 a glass of water. That was it for 6.5 hours.

 

Buy your food in the airport and by a 1.5L water bottle to carry on.

 

I flew Icelandair to Europe and Lufthansa back to the states. These flights absolutely proved that you get what you pay for.

The 6.5hour flight was miserable and had the most uncomfortable seats I've every sat in. The 11.5 hour Lufthansa flight was a dream and I could have easily flown for a few hours more.

The flight from YYZ to KEF is only @5 hours and doesn't depart til after 9pm, so if we have dinner at the airport, bring water aboard, we should survive any discomfort especially if we can fall asleep. Then we'll have 3 days to "recover" before the 3 hour flight to LGW. The return flight will be in two legs which should give us a chance to stretch our legs!

bugeater had the worst experience I've heard of on Icelandair.

 

I've flown eight flights on them and there have always been multiple drink services, and you can always get extra drinks any time you want by a walk to the galley. They also have a huge selection of video on demand -- I think I've seen more movies on their planes than in the theaters over the past few years!

This is good news- have you flown Icelandair's Business Class? Pricing is only a few hundred more than UA's r/t economy to Europe.

Ignore my earlier post please.

In today's mail not only did I receive the 2015 Europe and 2015/2016

Asia Pacific brochures, but the previous editions were included as well!

I really like the layout of the newest catalogs, which open horizontally vs. vertically. In this format the deck plans are bigger than previously.

Well done, Celebrity and thanks!

One of my Cruise Critic friends raved about Perry Grant and from his schedule for 2015, he'll be on our Eclipse cruise next May. In our previous Celeb cruises, we've not had him aboard.

Is he the CD? Is he an entertainer? I hear he is a hoot, and want to be sure not to miss what he does best?

Hi TMLAalum:

 

I would say it took about 30 minutes to walk down from the fjord center to the dock at Geiranger. This was at a pretty steady clip not strolling.

 

We also used Geiranger Taxi and Tour Bus. I had inquired about the driver speaking English and was assured that he could answer any questions we had. Well, he spoke about three words of English. There was absolute silence on our trip up Dalsnibba, all 35 minutes of it. Thankfully, I was traveling with a "go with the flow group", but in all of the private tours I have arranged--think 30-40, this was the worst experience of all. I would suggest that you ask for a guide to join the tour or take the hop-on bus as we heard from others on the cruise that they played a recording with dialogue as to what you were seeing.

 

Additionally, I left my raincoat on the mini-van (couldn't get off there fast enough) and had the concierge on the ship e-mail Geiranger Taxi since the internet connection on the ship was at best sporadic. I had asked that they mail it to the agent at Olden which was a later stop( 10 days) on our trip with the notation that I would reimburse them for any expense and time involved. There was no response from them; unlike the pre-cruise when they were always quick to answer my questions.

 

This was the first tour I had arranged that required a transfer instead of credit card which required additional effort and expense on my part. I should have read between the lines then. Buyer beware!

Thanks for this heads-up!! So far there's not been mention in my emails with Geiranger Taxi of how to make payment, but the expense of a wire transfer, the lack of an English-speaking driver, and the non-return of your raincoat that you experienced are causing me to back off from keeping this reservation!

Thus, three very different days we might not have experienced had we visited Iceland on a stopover flight.

 

The stopover time is up to us- we are planning on 3 days/3nights and will travel beyond Reykjavik either on small group tours or via rental car. Were it summertime, we'd probably opt for longer, but I'm not sure the roads will all be passable in early May. At least, the driving is on the right side of the road!

 

Two of my friends went on an all Norway cruise last month. They spent a couple of days in Iceland afterward, around Reykjavik. My suggestion if you plan to take a similar trip to that of my friends, is to spend at least a day or two away from Reykjavik. Visit a city in another part of the country, like the ones I described above. You'll find very different topography and experience small town Iceland life.

We'd love to head north, but for sure we will do the Golden Circle and possibly Vik and eastward.

My post about Yorkshire accents was in jest. ;)

As in other parts of the UK you might struggle with a word or two while chatting to "locals" - it's part of the fun of travelling but no big deal, & those you come into contact with tend not to have thick local accents. In fact, in hotels, restaurants etc the staff are from all over Europe, especially eastern Europe, so you'll have a range of accents to contend with..

 

Doubtless there's a Cumbrian (Lake District) accent, but most of us southerners wouldn't be able to distinguish it from most other northern accents. And it's not a problem. :)

 

For cruisers flying/sailing from the south & wanting to spend a few days touring, the Lake District is too far to be worthwhile.

But you're going to Thirsk, and from there it's just a couple of hours over the Pennines.

Hiking is the big thing in the Lake District but I'm guessing you'll not have time for that. But do try to fit in some time driving a couple of the mountain passes. And a steamer trip on Lake Windermere, which can also be combined with a steam railway.

http://www.visitcumbria.com/roads/

http://www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk/cruises-fares

Have you chosen a Lake District base yet?

 

JB :)

No Lake District base yet- hoping for a timeshare trade request put in with UKRE to come through in exchange for our Ireland week. We should have about 6 days to spend post-Yorkshire. Appears to be lots to see & do in both areas, but won't get to see Downton Abbey aka Highclere Castle since it's nowhere near Thirsk & Ripon as suggested by the series.

We'll be taking a train from Southampton to the Manchester airport and renting a car for the next couple weeks.

Via the website, I ordered a Europe brochure for a friend of mine who was considering joining us next May and she received it in about a week. IDK if it was a 2015, because she passed it on to her sis. They have since booked the cruise.

I ordered 2 brochures for myself on 7/7. Nada as of yesterday.

I wonder if brochure orders aren't sent to those of us already booked on Celebrity because, after all, we've already committed to a cruise and don't "need" a brochure to entice us!?

I am still deciding on whether to concentrate on Norway or Iceland or both but do not have a big budget.

Have you considered flying Icelandair to Europe connecting thru Reykjavik and taking advantage of their "free" stopover in Iceland? They fly from NYC (JFK & EWR) as well as Toronto. From the Finger Lakes area all three of these airports are within driving distance so you wouldn't have the hassle of trying to find flights to those airports. Their current fares are running in the low 900s USD r/t with the stopover.

We will be doing this in conjunction with our Fjords cruise, driving 5 hours to Toronto and parking there at @$5/day which is the most cost-effective for us.

To me, taking advantage of the Iceland stopover is the best of both worlds as we get to spend more time in Iceland at less cost than we would have by taking a combination Norway/Iceland cruise.

Is there any type of travel dictionary published to help us communicate with "the locals" as we sightsee around Yorkshire?

Oh, and what about a Lakes District dialect? We hope to visit there as well!

There will be many nights post-cruise for us in England (including Sutton Hall in Thirsk, KevinYork:)) to experience pubs and restaurants and several nights stopover in Iceland enroute to LGW dining out, so we will keep the meal deal at the West Quay, thanks to input from all.

Do you mind sharing who you are using for the tour? I've not found any private ones except the busses from the visitors center.

Not sure it's really a tour we're getting, but this is the company we're using-

http://www.geirangertaxi.no/en-GB/Default.aspx.

The cost p/p for a minivan of 8 is @$16 less than the Celebrity tour with the same itinerary.

I am really excited to think we won't have to tender!!

Lars, is there any way to find out if other ships will be with us in Geiranger on 13 May?

Just a heads up that there is no access between 7000 & 7001 due to a hall wall. So if you are looking to book 2 cabins, you'd be better with 7001 & 7003 or 7000 & 7002.

We had 7003 on the Millennium and size-wise it was as spacious as the SS1 we had on the Silhouette!

Thanks for the link to the menu at the Premier. It certainly seems to have something for everyone;)...

I'm going to share the option of in-hotel dinner vs. experiencing other authentic UK options with our group and go with the majority. (I'm usually given free reign as the planner, but I work hard to accommodate the others. My preference would be a local restaurant/pub, but in this case convenience is taking precedence.) If most would like to dine outside the Premier, I'll seek a "volunteer" to do further research into establishments that will please most, take reservations and have that person make the booking!

We've flown often on both Embraers & Canadair jets and the older the plane the more worn the padding! Definitely agree with Zach about the longer the flight, the less comfortable either is! And I've flown a few turboprops, most recently on UA from BWI-CLE.

On our four intra-China flights on three different airlines recently, I was amazed at the comfort and service thanks to the use of 737s.

Brighton Line, your experience is similar to the one my friend shared. I am keeping fingers X'd that our flight to DEN isn't delayed as we have @60 minutes connect time there. We do have 41 hours leeway to make it in time to my niece's wedding....

I've reserved a private tour that will be @3-3.5 hours up to Dalsnibba, back through town, and on to Eagles Nest. Our ship is tendered from 7am-3pm and I requested a meetup time for the tour of 8:45, thinking that it might take awhile to get on a tender. (Any Celeb cruisers have information about the tender situation in Geiranger?) That should bring us back to town no later than 12:30, and I would ask the tour operator to drop us off at the falls.

I-cruiser & GJH123, would you please let me know how long the waterfall climb took r/t from the base? Takk!

Yes, my friend indicated it seemed to be occurring on the smaller regional jets. Our upcoming UA flights include one Canadair segment (CLE-DEN) out of four. Not a comfortable plane for a 3+ hour flight.

A friend of mine who is a frequent UA flier indicates that cargo is taking priority over pax on many flights. For example, pax are being removed from flights due to "overweight" (not them, but total fly weight) but it is cargo in the hold that is actually the issue. Of course, UA is not revealing that it's the cargo at fault, but that is the consensus among frequent UA fliers.

Any substantiation to this??

The Kai Tak cruise terminal is far from the heart of Hong Kong, i.e. @100 HKD taxi ride from seaside Kowloon. The HK metro may have a line that would be near any hotel in this area, but from what I recall of our taxi ride, this area of Hong Kong is not too nice.

I'd suggest the Salisbury YMCA hotel where we stayed in a "deluxe" room with a view of the harbor. The price was @228 USD per night, which is low for this location, and the room was not large, but the view was fantastic.