Maya_C

The last time we were on the Summit, our favorite place for lunch or dinner was at the rear of the Oceanview Cafe where fish and meat were grilled to order.  Did that food option survive Covid and staff shortages? Thanks in advance for your help.

~Maya

2 hours ago, TMLAalum said:

@Maya_C

Would be lovely to meet on a Celebrity cruise one day! In addition to the one we've booked for February, we are ready to commit to Iceland/Greenland/Boston for 2024 as soon as the sail date is published. Any interest?

Maybe we will meet on a cruise someday. We were booked on a February cruise out of San Juan, but cancelled in favor of a land stay in the Virgin Islands. Decades ago on a ship from New York to Southampton in June, I was seasick and cold for the entire crossing, so I'm not keen on spending as many days on the North Atlantic as the Iceland-Boston itinerary requires. I always look for a cruise with as few sea days as possible. Enjoy your February cruise!

5 minutes ago, TMLAalum said:

Yes, I am! You? If so, you are only the 2nd alumna who has picked up the connection to our high school since I joined Cruise Critic!

Yes. I don't spend much time on CC, so it was just by chance that I noticed your screen name. Two days ago I was on what we call our TMLA Zoom call with some classmates. One of them has been my best friend since freshman year and lives nearby. The others I had seen only once or not at all since graduation, but we reconnected after Covid hit, and now we meet virtually 3 or 4 times a year. 

12 minutes ago, TMLAalum said:

On our own in Ravenna, Dubrovnik, and Rhodes at older ages than you two, Stockjock!

 

Curious about your screen name. Are you a Mary Louis alum?

We also did Ravenna and Dubrovnik on our own. The next time we're in Ravenna, I'd book a private tour. The mosaics were beautiful, but eavesdropping on some tour groups, I realized that a guide would have helped us understand and appreciate the mosaics more.

I ask for club soda with a splash of cranberry juice. No problem.

Though the rooms probably aren't appreciably bigger than other OV rooms, the larger window and the quiet location make them better IMHO. The location is great (between center and aft elevators/staircases) and the corridor is quiet. We had one of those rooms with a door that adjoined another room, but we didn't hear any noise from our neighbors. 

Is the sliding door in the porthole view veranda like a standard veranda's, passengers deciding when to open or close it. Or is it like the Infinite Veranda sliding door which the captain can lock? 

I booked air this week through Celebrity on United and have been able to select seats for flights in February. This wasn't true for Celebrity Air tickets on a Europe-based airline, which allowed seat reservations only after full payment.  

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

No they are available with refundable and non refundable deposits.

 

Here is a link to some FAQ for the new No Perks rate https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Special_Offers/CEL_5_5_22_No_Perk_Rate_FAQs.pdf

Thank you!

Does anyone know if the Sale Only rates require a nonrefundable deposit?

We hired someone from Tours by Locals to pick us up at the airport in the morning, give us a tour, and then drop us off at the ship. I'm sure you could arrange to reverse the pickup and drop-off. 

6 hours ago, ski ww said:

I just checked the HAL web site and this cruise is back on. Trieste is in brackets next to Venice & Santorini has been replaced by Nafplion, never heard of it. To bad as Santorini has been on our bucket list for years.

We stopped at Nafplion on our last Greek cruise. It was a gem, a delightful town, not clogged by tourists. It has a castle you can climb to overlooking the town and the sea, a fortress you can visit on a nearby island, delightful walking streets with shops and restaurants, a terrific antiquity museum, and options for excursions to nearby tourist attractions included Corinth,  Mycenae with its ancients ruins, and Epidaurus's impressive Greek theater. On that same cruise we stopped at Santorini, which had been on our bucket list for years. Given a choice between the two, I would return to Nafplion for several days, rather than go back to Santorini.

On 3/18/2022 at 2:44 PM, dgoz said:

Is the gelato that much better than the ice cream that it is worth paying extra for?

IMHO,  it isn't better. The free ice cream bar has more flavors, more variety day to day, as well as sorbets and frozen yogurt.

We booked a guarantee ocean view on Azamara, and were assigned a room just aft of the forward elevators on Deck 4. It was 2 categories above the cheapest ocean view rooms. I asked my TA to see if I could get a cabin farther aft. Azamara was willing to put us in any cabin that was available within that same category, so if you don't like the cabin you're assigned, you might be able to get a different one.  We chose a room halfway between the two sets of elevators on Deck 4. It was really quiet, and we liked Deck 4 for its easy access to the Mosaic cafe and the MDR, both one floor up.  

Thanks so much for the tips. I did manage to put a hold on a cruise after backing out of the Pay Now page.  

With Lock It In, do you still pay the deposit, but it just falls through if you don't finalize the booking?

Maybe I missed the Lock It In button. I'll go back through the booking. Thank you.

I'm about to make a new booking. I don't see the courtesy hold option, just a pay the deposit now option. When I go to the payment page, there's no notice of a courtesy hold there either. Is it no longer an option for new bookings? Thanks in advance for your help.

~Maya

10 hours ago, cruiseaholic78 said:

This is what the vending machines look like. Rosalyn

Brings back memories of Horn and Hardart Automats in New York (and Philadelphia, I think). I loved visiting them as a kid. 

Thank you, Norris, for your great photos and commentary. Your posts made me feel as if I was on the ship and visiting the ports. I saw some familiar places from our previous travels and one special place we missed. I'd booked a private tour to Montserrat at the end of our Sept 2020 cruise, which was of course cancelled. After seeing your pictures, I'll make sure I get there. Your photos made Sagrada Familia more magical than when we were last there in person, but that was on a cloudy day.  I hope to cross paths with you and Carol on a cruise one  day and will check out your reviews of earlier cruises. 

Happy travels,

Maya

Let's hope for more variety in the menus when the ships are at full capacity. 

Azamara has the better itinerary, with not just Corfu and Crete, but also Rhodes, as well as the chance to see more of Greece at the end of the cruise. The AZ cruise is also one day longer.  As for noise, we found the MDR on Summit (basically the same basic ship as the Constellation) to be earsplitting. I don't remember the MDR on the larger Celebrity ships to be quite as loud. We found the MDR on AZ  quieter. The one AZ cruise we took had a superb lecturer, very knowledgeable about the history and culture of  the ports we visited. That has not been the case on any Celebrity cruises we've been on. 

Based on one cruise each on O and AZ, I agree with a previous poster about the more "fun" feel of AZ and the sameness of the experience from night to night on Oceania. We found the food in the MDRs similar with a slight edge to Oceania. Of the two specialty restaurants where we ate on O, the Asian one was excellent, the "steak" one was overcrowded, loud, hectic, and featured a waiter too harried to answer a question about the menu. The food was nothing special. We never felt the need to upgrade from the MDR on AZ to a specialty restaurant.

A ship is the ideal way to visit the ports on the AZ (sights near the port) itinerary. The O itinerary has many places easily visited on a land tour and several ports that are industrial and a distance from the sights.  Just my 2 cents and YMMV.

Something similar has happened to me because I have an ad-blocker installed in Chrome, which prevents pop-up windows from opening. The fix was to turn the ad-blocker off for that particular website. 

Major US airlines have no weight limitations for carry ons. Here's a list of the weight limitations on other airlines. None of those listed go lower than 15 pounds).

https://www.tripsavvy.com/carrry-on-bags-size-weight-limits-1861874

We go on cruises with a carry on bags that roll and a backpack. We follow the size rules for the bag that goes into the bin, but DH's backpack is probably larger than the personal item should be. Still, no problem on the plane. At the port we drop off our the bags and the larger backpack for delivery to our rooms. I usually carry my smaller backpack with me when boarding. We take our own bags off at the end of the cruise, so we don't have to put them out the night before and aren't delayed by having to locate our bags in a sea of luggage after we leave the ship.