terrydtx

We are on the Apex in September from Amsterdam to Athens and share several of your ports. Most of the excursions I have seen that have a wheelchair exclusion are at the tendered ports because of transferring to the tenders on and off the ship. No one in our party have any mobility issues but I did see the exclusions listed. BTW we no longer book any shore excursions from Celebrity and now use various 3rd party private excursions. We have all of our Apex excursions already booked as one of our roll call members has organized private small group (less than 14 people) excursions for all of our ports. Have you joined your roll call and asked if anyone is organizing any private excursions?

Last year we passed on the Celebrity shuttles from Venice to Ravenna, no way we wanted to be on a crowded bus with 30 plus strangers for 2 hours. We had 4 in our party and we used a private minivan transfer for the 4 of us for about $100pp. He picked us up at the parking center on Venice Island after our 3 day pre cruise visit.

Does the lounge actually have a manned concierge that can help with booking things like the restaurants while onboard?

I learned last year after a terrible experience on a HAL cruise of Greece, to never say never again on CC. After the cruise I went on a CC rant about how after 10 years of cruising with HAL, I would never cruise with them again. After my rants, our travel insurance made us whole with a generous cash settlement. Then in January we were surprised by HAL when they sent us a very generous FCC. The FCC was enough to cover a 7 day California Coastal cruise in November for my wife and I on the Koingsdam in a top level verandah cabin. After the HAL cruise we both said to ourselves that other than the bad experience the cruise overall was a very good one. After I was called out on CC about booking another HAL cruise after I said I was done with them, I made a CC apology and ate some crow. We have also booked a cruise with HAL for next August of NE/Canada.

We looked at one of the smaller ships that sails out of Galveston for this summer with our granddaughter, but the older smaller ships do not have suites amenities that compare to what we are getting on the Equinox Sky Suite from FLL in June.

Last week we booked with FBC our airfare for next January to Australia. We have a B2B cruise with a 10 day post cruise driving trip in Australia. We are flying from San Antonio to Sydney on American Airlines in Premium Economy. Our flights home are on Air New Zealand from Melbourne to Aukland and then direct to Houston, TX in Premium Economy. The whole itinerary was ideal for us, we wanted to fly home on Air NZ as their premium economy is one of the best rated in the industry. There was no way to book this itinerary directly with the airlines involved and the pricing was about the same as doing either United or AA round trip booked directly. Air New Zealand RT was about $1200pp more if booked direct. After booking online, I called FBC to get our seating assigned and it took only about 15 minutes to get all of our seats chosen. Best part is we do not pay until final payment in October, and we can change or cancel flights at any time if we find better deals with no penalty.

I have no interest in sailing on RCL even in high end suites, too many people on their ships and 4000-6000 passengers means way too many kids. Might try Yacht club someday if the itinerary was right but I have read so many terrible reviews about food in their YC. We did the NCL Haven once and thought it was great until we did our first Retreat with Celebrity, would never sail in the Haven again, also too many people and huge ships.

We feel the same about spending time on the balcony. We prefer room service breakfast each morning on the balcony. We spend most of our non-bar and restaurant time on our balcony. I do not like crowds and being up on a deck chair around the pool fighting off the chair hogs is not my thing; I much prefer the privacy and quiet of being on my balcony.

Following your cruise too. We will be on our first cruise in one of the new Pinnacle class ships, the K'Dam in November. I hear they are beautiful ships.

Your post cruise tour of LA was very nostalgic for me, I grew up in the 1960's in Hollywood and even graduated from Hollywood High School in 1968. I spent many days at the beaches around Malibu and the amusement park at Santa Monica. I was born in Santa Monica Hospital. Seeing how much fun Gen Z had can't wait for our June Equinox cruise when we will take our 12 year old granddaughter on her first cruise. I know she will be spending a lot of time in the kids club meeting new friends. Safe Travels home and I can't wait to follow along in your next cruise adventure.

Thank you, we are very excited to be doing this trip and visiting your beautiful country. This takes one major item off of our bucket list. We already bought our air and are using Air New Zealand to fly home from Melbourne. This will be the longest we have been away from home; we leave on Jan 8 and return home February 15th. Best part we will miss most of our winter here in Texas too. We got delivered today our Fodders Guide to Australia and will be planning our drive for the 11 days after the cruise. Hope to spend some time in your wine country as well on the drive.

We had some issues using our regular CC last year in Venice at the kiosks for buying the water bus tickets, I had to use my debit card which had a pin number. This year I requested and received a 4 digit pin number for one of my Citi Bank CCs that I take when we travel. I di this when some gas stations in Texas required pins to buy gas when gas got close to $5 a gallon and experienced so many fraudulent CCs.

The reasons in this article are the same ones sited by Celebrity for moving our Apex departure to Rotterdam in September. If northern Europe has another dry spring/summer season like last year, I suspect most cruises will move from Amsterdam to other ports.

We are on the Equinox on Deck 12 in June and we love the location, easy walk out to the pool and pool bar to get drinks. We did deck 12 in 2021 on the Equinox and never found the noise to bother us at all. Deck 11 should not have any sound issues from the Lido deck 14. (there is no deck 13)

Good to know about the Concierge lounge, we booked our first O cruise on the Marina in Concierge class cabin on the same floor as the lounge.

Not sure what the other lines the OP is talking about. Last year on a 14 night HAL Greek cruise we lost both Santorini and Crete ports with no explanation and they got replaced with a sea day and a second stop in Mykonos and no compensation. Just the risk of traveling these days. If Oceania had canceled the whole cruise just days before departure think about how many more people would have been just as upset. Not everyone on a cruise goes for the ports they just want to be on a floating resort.

Head up on buying train tickets at the Amsterdam airport to go to Rotterdam or anywhere else. I read this in the Viking River Cruise Critic forum. Apparently if you try to buy train tickets at the Kiosks at the airport, US credit cards will not work without a 4- or 5-digit pin number. If you do not have a pin number, you have to wait in line at the live cashiers location for tickets.

Those rocking chairs were always in the way and good for only stubbing your toes on. Glad they are gone.

From the OP's comments it sounds like he or she is in a regular Aqua Class cabin, but then again the balcony tables on the Edge Sky Suites are not much more than a side table and hard to dine on. I really like the tables on the S Class Sky Suite Balconies, enough room for two people to dine comfortably on their balcony.

And many reviews about how bad the MDR food and menus have gotten like the OP posted in this thread.

Apparently not, we are moving on to Oceania and even two HAL cruises as what got us away from HAL with Celebrity is sending to look elsewhere. Future pricing for Suites on Celebrity has us also looking elsewhere, as no way we would book less than a suite anymore.

There is a huge difference between the two.

Are you referring to the balconies for suites or aft facing verandah cabins? These are the only cabins with traditional open-air balconies on E Class ships. The majority of the rest of the cabins are infinite View cabins with a window that opens, not real traditional balconies.

Very accurate information. If you are on a Celebrity sponsored excursion you will meet in the theater and be escorted to your tender by a crew member when it is time to depart. I would not recommend private tours on tender ports that leave very early as you will have no priority on being tendered unless in a suite or high CC status.

Thank you for your review, we will be on the Equinox in June with our 12-year-old granddaughter.