Xport

Your inquiry will likely receive far better response if you were to post it to the Roll Call for your specific cruise... That's where you will find other members who are doing the same sailing as you are [and in fact, it appears to be a large and active group]... Stop by, introduce yourself, and you may in fact find that others are already planning or have planned independent tour opportunities during your sailing...

The link follows...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1808219

This Cruise Critic forum is intended for discussion of more generic matters related to sailing with Celebrity rather than discussions surrounding a specific cruise...

Are on Deck 11... Reflection is the only Solstice-Class ship that also has AquaClass cabins on Deck 12...

My recall--but please check the deck plan in the event that something has very recently changed--is that cabins on Equinox' Deck 12 are also Concierge Class [with dining in the MDR]...

As noted by the last poster... AquaClass guests have access to the MDR [it is usually in the Select Dining area and is best arranged in advance through the Blu Maitre 'D]... Non-AQ guests--other than those who are staying in suites if space is available at dinner [have never seen breakfast to be a problem; dinner sometimes is]--do not have access to Blu on either a complimentary or upcharge basis...

I'm two for two in having thoroughly enjoyed two AzAmazing Evenings that were--as promised--truly amazing... The first was in Ho Chi Minh City [at a venue that Azamara had used before] and the second was in Tokyo [at a venue that Azamara hadn't used before]... Both were staged at beautiful, culturally appropriate venues with local entertainment, displays, and snacks that were nicely done and further promoted Azamara's concept of destination immersion...

While some will no doubt always be better than others [if for no other reason than geography], I do have the sense that Azamara has fine tuned--and will continue to fine tune--what works and has learned--and will continue to learn--what doesn't work for so ambitious, so unique, and so logistically difficult an undertaking... I found them to be very worthwhile and pleasant diversions...

Perhaps I was just lucky but, in both my experiences, the events--from dining opportunities aboard ship before/after, to transportation, to content/feature inclusions--were impeccably planned and orchestrated...

I very much look forward to experiencing whatever Azamara has in store for us in South America and the Caribbean next winter...

Can anyone comment on whether the contents of the shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer are different?

And do not have the same lemongrass scent that characterized what was supplied in the past...

But was aboard Constellation last week and saw the following published in Monday's Celebrity Today...

"Electric Devices In Stateroom

We kindly request our guests not to use private electric devices in their staterooms such as multiple chargers due to safety reasons. We thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation."

Don't know if Celebrity was confiscating charging strips if detected during scanning of luggage as it was loaded/brought aboard [confiscated items are generally returned at disembarkation] and/or if observed during stateroom housekeeping...

Are the same ones used in Concierge Class last week aboard Constellation...

They are manufactured by Gilchrist & Soames...

I wish you could come back from a cruise and look at your bill online on the X site. I am not one to scroll through a bunch of stuff on a TV or wait in line on my last day of vaca to get a printed copy.

I was on the same sailing as you were [Deck 8]... My final statement was delivered--under my stateroom door--prior to disembarkation on Thursday morning...

Thanks so much for your post. We are getting on Connie May 9 in AMS. Can you let us know who the officers are on board?

 

Also---any update on the spa?

That Gimletgal provided an update for Constellation [see post 2588] this morning...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=862734

I heard--but do not know for certain--that the current Captain may well be going on home leave following the Transatlantic or shortly thereafter...

Don't know what it is that you'd like to know about the spa but I, too, got off on Thursday and Canyon Ranch managed the services last cruise...

Sorry to go off topic here...

 

But I was on Summit during this period, and one day in port, the announcements said we'd see an Azamara ship, a sister to the Celebrity line, but it never came. Was this related I wonder?

 

I think the port was St. Lucia (it was a charter) where we had that announcement.

Azamara Journey is the ship that sustained propeller damage--caused by a piece of steel cabling--while entering Tokyo Bay on 25 February [17 February sailing from Hong Kong to Shanghai]... That cruise was terminated two days early in Osaka... Journey's subsequent sailing--3 March--was cancelled as the ship needed to be taken to a dry dock in South Korea for repair; she returned to service on 17 March out of Hong Kong as scheduled...

During early March, Azamara Quest did a crossing to Miami which included some ports in the Caribbean followed by a twelve night itinerary to the West Indies--16 March; round-trip Miami--and, at the end of the month, started several Panama Canal cruises...

I suspect that you missed seeing Quest--while you were aboard Summit--merely as a matter of routing changes...

But I have had snail mail from both Celebrity and Azamara--it happened as recently as this week--that have suggested some very interesting living arrangements...

I live in a high rise and, now and then, I get catalogues and promotional mailings addressed to me--right down to Apartment #--and to a neighbor [some I've known, some not; it's never been the same error twice] who lives in the same building...

I used to call the cruise lines to get the addresses corrected but long ago decided that those calls were to no avail... And so, I've resigned myself to the fact that while I don't get everything intended for me, nor do I get quite as much snail mail in which I likely have no interest!

Hi Architect, the list of voyages eligible for the 125% single supplement can be found at: http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/special-offers/savings-singles. These are for remaining 2014, and very early 2015, sailings.

Let me know if you need more help.

Do you happen to know if/when the list of 2015 itineraries eligible for the 125% Single Supplement will be augmented? Right now, each of the two ships has only two sailings on the 2015 list--one each at the beginning of the year and one each at the end--and all are repositioning cruises... There are no opportunities to create well-priced [from a solo perspective], back-to-back experiences as there were at this time last year...

Late last April/early May, I booked three consecutive cruises on Journey in Asia this year [3 February, 17 February (which terminated early as a result of a mechanical issue), and 3 March (which needed to be cancelled for dry dock)] under the reduced Single Supplement...

You will note from my signature that I've created my bookings with Azamara for 2015 [the remainder of my 2014 cruise plans were set a year ago] so as to use the generous Future Cruise Discount Certificates issued in compensation; those must be used on sailings departing by the end of 2015... But those certificates are also based upon price paid--I understand that rationale--and, as the list stands now, it was impossible to find a meaningful trip--worthy of substantial airfare investment and, in some cases, visas--without a significant dip into the wallet for the cruise fare component too...

I don't want to come across as whiny or self-serving, understand that Azamara is not a charitable institution, and my own die may well be cast in any case [one of my sailings is full freight, the other is discounted but I'm now psyched about Rio]... It would however be nice to know if and when additional viable alternatives for Azamara's solo following during 2015--whether impacted by Journey's mechanical or not--may be forthcoming...

Thanks!

While I was aboard in February, Frederic was Head Chef for the 3 February sailing and Fabio was Head Chef for the 17 February sailing [the one that was cut short by two days as a result of mechanical difficulties]...

Given that menus understandably repeat on consecutive sailings, that the ship was provisioned in fairly comparable ports [singapore and Hong Kong], and that there tends to be significant continuity among cooks from sailing to sailing, I can honestly say that I didn't detect an ounce of difference in the food produced under one chef's galley leadership versus the other's and I found neither to be more interactive/personable/guest-focused [not that those are edible!] than the other... Both did a very admirable job...

I suspect that the varying assessments that you read of Azamara's food on this Board is more a matter of personal tastes--and perhaps provisioning source given Azamara's global nature--than it is a matter of a Head Chef's galley leadership and personal touches/flairs with menus that are essentially determined in Miami [though I do not discount the very significant role they play in managing a monstrous operation and fostering excellence with crew in a function with such high guest visibility]...

I doubt you'll be disappointed in your culinary experience and, as uktog did, also suggest you avoid comparison based upon hindsight [it's seldom that precise!]... Enjoy your trip!

So its a second half of April announcement.....................or later

I expressed my significant disappointment about how the Le Club Voyage changes were rolled out--or not rolled out--to both the Hotel Director and LCV Hostess/Future Cruise Sales Rep while aboard Journey in Asia during February [sorry to have missed you on the cancelled 3 March sailing]...

They shared my comments with Miami and I did receive a response from Head Office which didn't say much--other than to apologize for my perceived upset [it wasn't upset; it was my disappointment for the inexcusable delay and my perception of disrespect shown to guests sailing during the interim period (it still drives me crazy that they're using the new loyalty accounting scheme but have yet to improve benefits for those who have supposedly achieved a higher tier)]--but did reiterate that the changes would be unveiled this month...

As I've noted here before, it's been like waiting for Godot! My next Azamara cruises are not scheduled until February 2015... I sure hope, from my own perspective and from the perspective of others who are similarly situated, that it's resolved long before then... This has gone on way too long and it's surely not the case that Azamara didn't know that the Celebrity changes were imminent many months--if not at least a year--before they were rolled out...

Is only featured on Solstice; it is not a design feature on Equinox, Eclipse, Silhouette, or Reflection...

By all accounts [i haven't experienced it first hand], the "X" [or part of it] does not impact visibility from verandahs on Solstice...

This is where the Celebrity Tour will take you...

http://www.billieswamp.com/contact.html

Per their website, they are open 364 days a year [closed only on Christmas Day]...

I've done the Swamp Safari several times when friends have visited... Fun!

 

E. Passports

 

Even though we were boarding in Florida, we were visiting 6 foreign countries, so we felt it would be a good idea to bring passports. This trip we used passport cards. They were accepted without a problem and were so much easier to carry around than the standard passport book. We did bring the passport book with us in case it was needed but was able to leave it locked in the cabin safe the entire trip.

It is very thorough, insightful, well written, and much appreciated...

In the spirit of being constructive [you would have been covered in any case by having also carried your Passport Book] and informational for other readers, just a quick note to comment that use of a Passport Card only for travel [where accepted] can be problematic if one should need to fly back to the US on an emergency basis...

From the US State Department website:

-----

U.S. Passport Card

What is the passport card?

The passport card is the wallet-size travel document that can only be used to re-enter the United States at land border-crossings and sea ports-of-entry from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. The card provides a less expensive, smaller, and convenient alternative to the passport book for those who travel frequently to these destinations by land or by sea. The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air.

Why can’t I use the passport card to fly to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, or Bermuda?

The passport card was designed for the specific needs of northern and southern U.S. border communities with residents that cross the border frequently by land. The passport book is the only document approved for international travel by air.

-----

I suspect that you personally understand the potential limitations associated with carrying a Passport Card only... Just want to be sure the others understand that it is not a full substitute for a Passport Book...

If it is expected [things can/do change at the discretion of the Port Master based upon things like weather, port traffic, and/or port maintenance] that you will be docked or tendered at each port by looking at the itinerary for your cruise at the Celebrity website...

Azamara has apparently been doing this for some time now--I first saw it in February--and, by all accounts, it seems to work fairly well... If anything, they were experiencing some systems issues [no surprises there!] in terms of getting the survey link to some guests for whom they did have e-mail addresses...

Don't know if Celebrity will follow suit but Azamara even provided back-to-back guests with fifteen minutes of onboard internet time for survey completion since, once delivered, the evaluation link is only available for seven days...

I was aboard Azamara Journey last month--and was also scheduled to sail on the next cruise out of Shanghai on 3 March--when the ship's port propeller was damaged by debris as we arrived in Tokyo... The ship needed to be taken to dry dock for repairs so the cruise then in progress was terminated two days early [we sailed to Osaka on one prop--arriving twenty hours late--and were flown from there to Shanghai] and the two week cruise scheduled to start in Shanghai on 3 March was fully cancelled...

I guess that Azamara couldn't tell who of us were back-to-back guests on both sailings [there were 22 of us] as I got two e-mails from them--advising of the 3 March cancellation and requesting confirmation of receipt--within less than ninety minutes... That's how I learned that the next cruise had been cancelled and ironically, the ship's officers--I told the Hotel Director--hadn't yet received confirmation from Miami [they were looking for dry dock space; ultimately the ship went to South Korea after finding no available space at Osaka/nearby Japan] that the next cruise had been officially cancelled... The Captain made an announcement relative to cancellation of the 3 March sailing seven hours later... While those of us who were already aboard innately knew of the possibility the next cruise wouldn't materialize and thought the communication style/sequence was haphazard/impersonal, the e-mail blast did prevent a large number of those who expected to board in Shanghai from traveling to China unnecessarily... Under the circumstances and with just days to spare, Azamara's request for receipt confirmation was understandable...

In your case, I think Celebrity is just trying to give you the courtesy of knowing in advance that boarding for your cruise is apt to be delayed by inspections--I've had the same experience without advance notice; the terminal at Port Everglades was mayhem during the interim--and trying to ward off complaints from those who arrive with the expectation of boarding early...

Enjoy your cruise! The good news is that it appears that you're going!

We always appreciate your contributions to this forum and look forward to hearing about your personal cruise experiences, Andy... But please, please, please do not be confused about what is important as you wend your way through so many challenges vying for your attention/leadership... Your sister's health is important, your own health/need to destress/clarity--and perhaps, your work--are important, and your mom's well-being is important... Everything else is secondary...

Wishing you only great outcomes... I'm rooting for all of you...

I can't remember whether there was body wash as well.

Body Wash was supplied too...

The emergency contact phone number for all Celebrity ships is 1-877-266-1020...

Be sure that persons who may be calling you know both the name of the ship you are sailing and your stateroom number...

You'll find related information in the FAQ section of Celebrity's website...

No personal experience but my understanding is that such calls are expensive...

Unexpected Duplication; Sorry!

You'll be provided with a compact guide to the ship's deck plans when each of you receive your Sea Pass... In addition, there's very informative signage around the ship [and especially at each elevator lobby/in each elevator...

I'm not aware of an app but you certainly won't get lost!

That is the way I read it too in their terms and conditions. Platinum and Diamond are the two levels shown in the terms and conditions for reciprocal membership benefits, so the two newer levels on Celebrity are not matched with higher RCI levels. So I also take Elite to be the highest reciprocal available.

And it works both ways...

Royal Caribbean Crown & Anchor members with a membership level of Diamond or higher are provided with Captain's Club Elite benefits on a reciprocal basis when sailing with Celebrity...

Celebrity Captain's Club members with a membership level of Elite or higher are provided with Crown & Anchor Diamond benefits on a reciprocal basis when sailing with Royal Caribbean...