debshomespun

We will be in Boston in August from the Anthem. I wanted to walk the Freedom Trail. I was going to take an Uber first thing in the morning to the beginning, and take our time and walk back to the ship for the day. Will that work? Uber cost for the 2 of us was about $12.

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When you take a cruise, there are certain items to pay for. Cruise, air, parking, are examples of cost. These can vary from trip to trip. We watch our daily expenses at home so we can splurge on our cruises. This will give us a few $$$ extra to spend on our trip.

We book our excursions on our own. We don't get a drink package, unless it's included in the cruise fare. We drink the freebies, flavored water, lemonade, during the day. We are Diamond +, so we take advantage of our status and have our pre dinner drinks in the diamond lounge.

There are lots if ways to spend $$$ on a cruise, or save $$$ on a cruise. Hope this helps you some.

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Bed by the Balcony. That way, I can look out the balcony while still in bed, LOL! :D

Lets clarify a couple things. First, 1:45 is good time at SFO. No issues there.

 

Second, you are flying a Qantas flight (its their plane), that happens to be codeshared with AA.

 

Do you mean you are flying SFO-ORD-CLE? ORN is in Algeria. ORD is Chicago O'Hare.

We flew through SFO on United in Nov from Singapore, with a 2 hr layover, and just made it. I was a little concerned with the shorter time on Qantas to AA, but I know it's a codeshare too.

It is on our way home, and I do think it is enough time. I will also be sure to know the airport layout before we go. Thank you again.

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Our situation is the opposite, International to Domestic.

We are flying from Sydney to SFO on March 1, 2019. Coming in on AA, flight operated by Qantas. Our connection time is only 1 hr 45 minutes, and we have to get off the plane, collect our luggage, go through immigration, recheck our luggage, and go from the International terminal, over to AA terminal. I know it is a short time with all this to do, but it is on our way home. SFO to ORN then ORN to CLE. Very attractive price with Choice Air, and it's on our way home, so we will roll with the punches if we miss a connection, or bad weather.

Our flight over is CLE to DFW, with just over 2 hours layover. Then DFW to SYD. Since we are flying on 1/26/19, never know the weather in CLE, but our ship doesn't leave until 1/31 from Sydney.

Enjoy your cruise! The Marina Bay Sands is a beautiful hotel. While in Singapore last year, we went to the top and had beautiful sights of Singapore. The pool looked amazing.

Enjoy the Ovation. Penang is a beautiful city. Phuket is amazing. We spent 5 days there in November in Patong beach. This is where the ships tender in. Brings back our memories of our time there. We loved Phuket.

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience with all of us!

Currently planning our 2nd visit to Australia and New Zealand. You will find tons of information on the Ports of Call section for Australia/New Zealand and also the Australia/New Zealand section. I also look at Trip Advisor to research information for the places we will be visiting.

Look at booking your air through Choice Air, as it tends to be lower priced than regular air. It becomes available about 330 days before your cruise.

Try to get to Hobbiton, it is an amazing time. I didn't care for the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit Movies, but Hobbiton was amazing. The highlight of our first visit.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I am in the process of planning our second trip to Australia/New Zealand. We are booked on Solstice Sydney to Auckland followed by Explorer to the South Pacific Islands. Will have lots of interest in your review of the South Pacific Islands as we will be stopping at all the ports you visited other than Mare.

I wonder if one were to move their sailing, can it be from a non-refundable to a refundable deposit fare?

 

bon voyage

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OP is from the UK. They have different rules than here in the US. :eek: They cannot just cancel and re book.

OBC from your TA will not show up on your cruiseplanner. Your TA can send you a copy of their receipt from Celebrity from when they added the OBC amenity to your ship board account. That is what I do with my customers, so in case the OBC I give to them does not show up, they have proof to show Guest Services.

Also, is you are part of a group, there is usually OBC. This type of OBC does not show up in your cruise planner. On my last 2 cruises, the OBC from the group my reservation was in did not show up. I had to go down to Guest Services and they had to call Miami to get it straightened out.

Of course, this doesn't surprise me knowing how RC's IT department is and also how their answers vary from customer service representatives.

Going on the Anthem 8/23/19. Diamond + and had planned to use my phone while at the US ports, and use our 2/24 hr internet to cover most of the time while on the ship. Guess we won't get that. I certainly will not spend more money to purchase an internet package that I used to get for "FREE".

Also have Explorer booked 2/15/19 for 14 nights in Australia. Hopefully, if this change is true, we can all bombard RC with our unhappiness about this change, and they will re-instate our benefits we have had in the past.

As others have said, with RC taking away all our perks for being "loyal" we will have to re-think what our "loyal" cruise line may be.

Definitely not happy about this change. :mad::(:eek:

Questions - which hotel did you book for the park cruise? Is it cancellable? What are you paying for the hotel and does it include round trip port transportation?(i.e. Why would you have to Uber back to the hotel?). Are you 2 people? What is your post cruise hotel budget?

Have not yet made the hotel reservation, but looking at Wyndam Garden Hotel at Newark ($149.00 w/14 nights free parking) or Country Inn & Suites Newark ($169.00 w/14 nights free parking). Does not include shuttle to port (It is $35. pp each way to port at these hotels). I looked at Uber, and the cost to the port is approximately $30.00 (for the 2 of us).

I was going to Uber back to the hotel to put our luggage in the car so we do not have to lug it around NYC. (only need a few things for our 2 night stay). I thought we could then take the train into the city from the Newark Airport hotel area. Otherwise, what would we do with all our luggage from the cruise while in NYC? We would only stay Sat & Sun night in the city, then check out Monday morning for some last sightseeing before we would get our car for our drive home. We are less than 6 hrs from the Newark Airport. Thanks again.

We are sailing on Anthem 8/23/18. Will be driving and plan to stay at Newark park & cruise hotel with the free parking up to 14 nights. Will then Uber to the port the morning of the cruise. We return Saturday, 9/1 and plan to stay 2 nights to see the sights. Our car will be left at the Newark Airport hotel, but we will have all our luggage. (this would be 1 large suitcase, 2 carry on size and 1 backpack. Our Anthem is a 9 night Canada/New England sailing).

We have only been to NYC once before, and used the subway and walked to most places. Would like to see Times Square, Rockefeller Center, 9/11 Memorial & Museum, & Central Park at a minimum, and possibly a broadway show. We are not afraid to use the subway/trains to/from places.

What locations would you suggest? Also, since we will have our luggage with us, we could take an Uber back to the Newark Hotel to leave luggage in our car trunk, other than our backpack which we would put things in for the 2 night stay. When we check out of the hotel Monday, we would need to carry any luggage with us for our touring until we would go back to the Newark hotel to get our car to drive home.

Should we just stay at the Newark airport location after the cruise also, and take the train to/from the city? Or would we waste too much time going back and forth on public transportation?

Suggestions welcome!! TIA.

The Empress will tender in Bimini on the 11/1/18 sailing.

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I would do this the other way around. By sailing from Auckland to Hawaii to Vancouver, you will have shorter days (rather than 24 hrs in a day, there may be 23 hours in a day).

We sailed form Sydney to NZ the end of Jan./15. Our sailing across the Tasmanian sea was not bad.

If you want the WI FI package, it will be much less if you purchase if before your cruise. If you call Captains Club, you should be able to have a discount on the WI FI unlimited package by using your coupon for the 90 minutes. Also, if Celebrity is having a sale, you might be able to use both. I'm not sure on this, but remember some people talking about it on our last roll call.

Also, beware, as the price listed on your cruise planner for the WI FI is less than the price you will be offered once on board.

I was able to get 6:15 and 6:30 for a couple nights on our 8/23 Anthem cruise. I booked my dining about 10 days ago.

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We sailed the Silhouette end of January for 9 nights and had my time dining without reservations. The first night while in line we met another couple and ate with them. We like to eat earlier rather than later. The second night we had to wait almost an hour to be seated. We went at 5:30. After speaking with the maître dee, we were able tyi get a reservation for 5:30 the 3rd evening. We would then have to make reservations each evening for our next night. We went to the desk in our side and were told no availability for 5:30, went to the other side and had no problem making a reservation for 5:30. Did they not have the same computer system??

The food was mostly good. We had prime rib twice and good both nights. Lobster was free flowing. Several nights I would change my sides and was never a problem. We did not eat at specialty but could get 30% off at Tuscan any of the nights.

Entertainment was hit and miss.. We don't go to a lot of the shows as we've seen so many.

We had the classic drink package and never had a problem getting a drink.

We are on the Anthem 8/23 sailing to New England & Canada. Will be our first time on this size ship. Looking forward to what she has to offer.

Also when booking on board, you get a reduced deposit of $100. pp.

I would go on the 11 night for a couple reasons. I LOVE the ABC Islands, and it is 1 more night. We just did a 14 night on Eclipse that went to the ABC Islands, and we had an overnight in Aruba. The further South you go, the better the weather. We sailed on 1/26 - 9 night to Eastern Islands (Silhouette) and the first 3 days were cold, with high winds, causing large waves. We were to have 2 sea days, then port in Antigua. We were behind, and missed Antigua, so had 3 sea days. Our next cruise on Eclipse, 14 night had great weather. (other than a little rain in Aruba)

You might also consider the cost of each cruise.

FCC's for RC can only be used on RC ships, not Celebrity.

Thanks for so much information on the South Pacific Islands. We are planning our Feb/19 cruise on Explorer and this is very helpful!!

We have great memories of our visit to the Blue Mountains when we visited Australia in 2015. We took the train from Sydney to the Blue Mountains area, then the bus. We then rode the cable car for spectacular views of the 3 sisters. We then walked trails down and rode the train out. What a fantastic day we had. Definitely worth the day to go see the Blue Mountains!