terrydtx

For the 4 of us the cost from our Amsterdam Hotel to the Rotterdam cruise port is 219 Euros or 55 Euros per person. The transport from the airport to our hotel is 109 Euros total.

Last year with 2 cruises from Rome and Venice (Trieste) we used private transfers for all locations for our group of 4 and for the 4 of us it was a lot cheaper than using the cruise line bus shuttles. See my post above for who we used. It is nice after a long overnight flight to see the driver holding the sign with my name on it. We took trains from Rome to Florence and then to Venice. We had luggage for the 4 of us for a 5 weeklong trip. When we were boarding the train in Rome the train cars doors closed on me loading the last of our bags. After that we got more efficient but with all of us over 70, it was not easy schlepping the bags.

We used this company to do the Amsterdam to Rotterdam transport. We also used them for the airport to Amsterdam Hotel. Private Transfers Schiphol | Private Transfers Amsterdam (viptravelservices.com) Other places to look are Trip Adviser, Viator and Welcome - Making travel easy, friendly, personal (welcomepickups.com) we used them for our transport from Athens to airport at the end of our cruise.

We have 4 in our group and the trains are less expensive but with a private car transport we get picked up at our hotel and dropped off at the cruise terminal. We traveled last year by trains in Italy and getting on and off them with luggage was challenging at best.

My doctor told me the same thing about Ambien, I am 73 and for the last year I have been using Relaxium Sleep that is advertised on TV and I sleep better than ever, I get it on Amazon.

We are on the Apex in September from Rotterdam which is less than 20 miles from Amsterdam. Both cities share the same airport Schiphol in Amsterdam. We are spending 3 nights pre cruise in Amsterdam and then taking a private transfer to the Apex in Rotterdam. Most of the Apex cruises this summer are sailing from Rotterdam because of water level issues in Amsterdam.

Jim speaks and Celebrity listens, LOL

Sounds like someone at corporate is reading this thread and making needed changes .

I forgot about 43, I have a bottle and it does make a good coffee drink. I also use it with gin in tonic for a different spin on gin and tonic.

Same here, Kalua if I want a Mexican coffee, Irish Whiskey for Irish Coffee and Bailey's for an English Coffee.

Maybe just the grounds would be dry, LOL inquiring minds want to know.

There should be no excuses for running out of Bacon. Sounds like HAL has issues with it's procurement department.

HAL Does have s few Mexico cruises in January and March on the Koingsdam when not doing the Circle Hawaii cruises. Looks like February is only the Hawaii cruises.

That was our experience on the Oosterdam last year, the bottle was brought to the table and poured into our glasses. We had the standard HIA beverage package.

We round trip from San Diego and go to Santa Barabara, Monterrey, SF and Ensenada. Booked an all-day Sonoma County wine tour in SF. I grew up in the LA area and have been to all the stops on land but will be seeing them in a different perspective from a ship. We had a sizable FCC from HAL that had to be used by Dec 31st and it covered the cost of this cruise in an aft facing verandah cabin. We are actually getting excited about this cruise, short and inexpensive flying time to San Diego adds to that too.

I could go for the coffee and Bailey's, great idea. Is the Bailey's brought separate from the coffee on the side?

I find the room service coffee to be very weak, but on our first cruise in a suite, my butler suggested that he could add a few shots of espresso from Cafe Al Bacio to our pot and it was perfect every morning. I still request this on every cruise.

We booked one of the California coastal cruises on the HAL Koingsdam in November to use an expiring FCC, but it is cruise we have no done before and will be much different from one that primarily stops in foreign ports.

Jim, I am a little late with joining another great live CC blog by you but as always look forward to going forward. We will be on the Apex in September going from Rotterdam to Athens and then spending a week in Santorini after the cruise.

I retired in March 2020, so Covid canceled 4 of our post retirement cruises. After our June Equinox cruise we are done forever with boring Caribbean cruises. We are only doing this cruise to take our 12 year old granddaughter on a cruise. We have 6 more cruises booked all for itineraries that we haven't done before. We still will have a 2025 Alaska cruise to book to take our last grandson on. We made a deal to take all of our grandchildren on a cruise when they turn 12. Here is the list of our upcoming cruises that are booked: Sept. 14, 2023 Celebrity Apex Retreat 12 nights Rotterdam, Spain, to Athens Nov. 4, 2023 Holland America Koningsdam 7 day Classic California Coastal Cruise. Jan, 13 , 2024 Celebrity Edge Retreat 12 nights New Zealand Sky Suite followed by: Jan 25, 2024 Celebrity Edge Retreat 10 nights Australia Great Barrier Reef cruise August 20, 2024 HAL Volendam 11 day Boston to Montreal March 6, 2025, Oceania Marina 18 nights Santiago to Buenos Ares

I would agree, the new Pinnacle class ships still have traditional open air balconies. The Celebrity new E Class ships have the terribly designed IV (Infinite Verandah) balcony which are just an ocean view cabin with a window that opens. When booking in less than a suite, HAL Pinnacle Class ships beats the Celebrity E Class ships hands down. Now when booking a suite on E Class ships, Celebrity wins the title of best ship.

Last year we did almost the same thing. Flew to Rome for 3 nights and then took the amazing express Italian train to Florence for 3 nights and then took it to Venice for 3 more nights.

I was told by a senior officer on the Reflection last year that the Revolutionizing program was on indefinite hold, and he doubted that it would start back up anytime in the next 4 or 5 years if ever. It takes 5-6 weeks to fully do the Revolution of any ship, which when needing revenue, is a long time to be offline. Any dry docking scheduled for less than 4 weeks is mainly for mandated routine maintenance and some miner interior refreshening. IMO, the money needed to update the M class ships, if available, would be better spent on the remaining S class ships.

You are so correct, I retired on my 70th birthday in March 2020 at the start of Covid lockdowns, and we had 2 cruises for that summer and fall that got canceled. We had 2 more in 2021 that also got canceled so we crammed those cruises into last year and this year. We look at it as we lost 2 of our prime retirement years of travel. Our first, first was booking a Retreat cabin on the Equinox in late 2021 with the 125% FCC we got from the canceled cruises.

That is why we book Signatures Suites only on deck 6 on Vista Class ships, it costs a little more but worth it. We sailed for 14 days last August in SS 6061 and never heard a sound. We have an aft cabin booked on the Koingsdam in November.