missminnie

Hi All

We used Private Greece Tours for our trip to Athens a few weeks back. We had Frank as our driver and he was excellent. Got us to the sites before the crowds hit to get the best photo's and visited viewing places where the larger tour buses cannot get.

Would definately recommend and would use again when next in Greece.

Hey

One of my old posts is back on topic! He he :D

I went for the Premium package in the end on the last cruise and did think I was drinking purely cause I had the package. HOWEVER, we sail again in 9 weeks and have both bought premium packages again - mainly cause there was an offer on and the convenience again. Just have to make sure I make use of it more with the soft drinks such as juices as didn't have any of them last time.

Great being able to order what you wanted without worrying though and tried lots of drinks I wouldn't normally as didn't want to waste my money.

Hi All

We used Romeinlimo for 3 tours on our recent cruise in the Med. The first was arranged by someone else for Pisa/Florence and our driver was called Mike. Our second we had Nick in Rome and in Naples we had Rapheal.

All 3 were absolutely fantastic and managed to get us around all the places we wanted to see (& more!) in our short time. All the tours are arranged to how you want to do them and see and they were fantastic at recommending other places of interest on the way too.

As they use mini vans, they can stop and get to places that the ship tours can't and you can get some wonderful views and new places that others wouldn't. In all the places, we managed to get parking right by the places we were visiting so very little walking and they were very prompt at collecting us too.

The highlight of our tour was Raphael in Salerno/Naples. He was great at organising everything and managed to get a guide in Pompeii which meant we were first in on the day and got to see everything before it got busy. Then he arranged a fantastic lunch at a local restaurant in Sorrento which we had so much fun. On the way to Positano, along the Amalfi coast, he put on some music and the first song was "that's amore!" which was just magical for the views we were seeing. And finally, as he dropped us back to the ship we were given a lovely bottle of Limoncello from Sorrento for our group. Absolutely fantastic and those little touches made this tour the best out of the 3.

Again, can't recommend using them highly enough and you get much better value than any ships tour with a smaller group of people.

Don't hesitate to use them.

Deck - 11

Cabin # - 1527

Class – Aqua

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Bed near?(balcony or bath) – Bath

Quiet Cabin (With comments on problems. Note if connecting. ) – Very quiet. No noise from above, although the seal on the balcony door did whistle slightly if really high winds but not a problem

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Excellent view straight down to the sea, Could see the bridge to the right and down the side of the ship to the left. Perfect view all round.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal

Was wind a problem? No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem?

Any specific problems with this cabin?

Any other comments? Excellent and would definately choose again.

Great Report and love your photo's. So much so that I've been looking into getting a new lens (wide angle) for my DSLR for our upcoming cruise on Solstice in September. And funny enough going to same places as yourself.

How did you go that night shot in Venice with the full moon and people? It's great but all my night ones come out bad!

We are still debating this very issue and were startled at the drink prices on Celebrity... we're just not used to those prices. For instance, I had lemon drop martini's on Princess in January that cost $7.20, including the 15% service charge. Yes, it was a full-sized martini. And no, they don't water the drinks down. We've decided to wait until we're on the ship next Sunday and see what the prices are for our drink preferences.

 

Two questions:

 

1. It's too late now but is there any benefit to pre-ordering a drink package?

 

2. I've already ordered the soda package. If I upgrade to the Premium package, will that be credited or will the Premium package be charged on top of the soda package I already have?

1. I'm not sure if there is any benefit of pre-ordering - just you get it printed on your seapass rather than a sticker but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

2. I beleive you have to cancel your soda package and then order your premium package otherwise you'll still be charged the full price.

Hope that helps

I am not a heavy drinker myself. I enjoy a cocktail before dinner, beer at the pool but I mostly drink soft drinks or coffee and the ships free coffee is usually good enough for me. This will be my first sailing on Celebrity and after viewing the price list that a member posted it would seem that the only way to go is the premium package. The price of cocktails on Celebrity is steep compared to Princess. On Princess I was able to get a Grey Goose martini for around $7.50 and a bucket of beer for around $21. Celebrity seems to charge Mid Town Manhattan prices. Even the soft drinks seem to be listed at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium prices. At these prices I am sure that I can drink at least $50 worth of water, and soda a day especially sailing in the Caribbean. The nice thing about it is if my beer gets warm on deck I can just order a cold one. I think if I was on a port intensive itinerary such as Europe I would probably opt for a soft drink package.

It just seems like a lot of money for drinks but in the end my on board account is about that much anyway and we don't even take cruise line excursions anymore in the Caribbean. When you get down to it I guess it doesn’t matter whether you pay out of your left pocket or your right pocket.

Very true - see ours is Med Venice cruise with only 3 sea days hence my dilemma. We have 3 full day tours already booked, a half day one and the other 3 ports we're doing our own thing so think we'll be off ship quite a bit compared to Caribbean. But we're thinking as we're going with 2 others this time and meeting others on board then we'll end up in bars before and after dinner every night!

I was thinking of getting one of each package myself. My wife drinks wine and the premium package has the better selection. As for the liquor selection, I am fine with the brands that are offered in the classic package. Will I have a problem being able to get an $8 cocktail at any venues with the classic package?

Hey Mike

I thought the same. I do tend to drink quite a bit of soft drinks but on our last cruise had a LOT of cocktails so hence why I'm thinking the premium. Looked online and saw the Martini's are $10 each (albeit I know you can ask for smaller version but don't feel right doing this) hence my reasoning for a premium for me. But it's a lot of money at over £900 for the 2 of us for 12 days!

Hey All

Just looking through our options as not sure whether to get 1 classic for me and 1 premium for other half. This is probably a really stupid question but I like the drinks in the classic selection but would like to have cocktails/martinis/wines which are probably more than $8 per drink etc so thinking of 2 premium packages but does the premium also include that of the classic package? i.e I don't see drinks such as Irish cream, absolut, malibu etc mentioned in the premium but they are in the classic and can't see any mention that the premium includes the classic but also in addition x&y. It says all the benefits of the premium non alcoholic but not classic

Could someone clarify this for me please?