debshomespun

We were in St. Marten 2/7/18 on Eclipse. We did the boat tour with Captain Bob. In the afternoon, we were at Maho Beach and watched the Jet Blue plane come in.

In the background you can see the hotel is still devastated. I think it is the Sonesta Beach Resort.

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I have sailed Anthem four times. Have done deck 6 balconies just off of forward elevator twice and a guarantee balcony that landed us midship on deck 12. The overhang is actually over the deck 13 balconies. Our fourth time we stayed in an interior with virtual balcony on deck 8... not really a fan of interiors, but the location was great near the forward elevators.

 

Back on in November and staying in the same deck 6 rooms we have been in before. I like the ability to just walk out my door and down the stairs to the Schooner bar, or hop the elevator and straight up to the Solarium.

What cabins did you have on deck 6, and was your view obstructed? We are on deck 6 port side near the forward elevators. Also, is the port side the smoking side, and if so, was there any problem with smoke smell? TIA

We are sailing on Anthem 9 night Canada this August. I booked an excursion yesterday with the 25% off. I just logged in to my account on RC, and it still shows excursions are on sale. I am on my laptop, and the excursions on sale have a banner on the top left corner. Not sure how long the sale is for.

Captain Leo was very visible on our 2/4/18 sailing on the Eclipse. Told many jokes and was very personable in many public venues.

As we departed the ship in the first group of walk offs, Captain Leo was there telling us all good bye, or until we meet again!

 

 

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Thanks for the heads up. We were thinking of trying this restaurant next week, but will re-think our plans after your experience, and that of the others.

Debshomespun, are you on 1/26 sailing ?

 

 

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Yes, We are, Assuming you are too? Are you on the roll call here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2318533

Come join in the fun!

Following your review, as we board when you get off. Beautiful wedding pictures, especially the rainbow shot. We have not been to St. Croix, so enjoyed your review for what you did there. Also, so glad to hear they have the Mexican day at the buffet. We love their nachos and trimmings!

Have you noticed if there is an increase in sick passengers with colds/flu? On the RC boards, there is a live from the Anthem, and OP was stating there are many sick passengers with coughs/flu, with as many as 20% of passengers, and its not the Noro Virus.

Have a great rest of your cruise, and we will wave to you as you leave the Silhouette!

We will be on Anthem 8/23/18 9 night sailing to Canada. We have My Time Dining. I don't like to make reservations. Do you know if Diamond + are allowed to bypass the wait line to get into the Dining Room? I recall on our last Oasis cruise, that was the case. Oasis was not busy, so it wasn't an issue. I certainly don't want to tick off fellow cruisers. Having MTD, and then having to make reservations for each night, kinda takes away from the spontaneity of the cruise.

We sailed the Mariner 4 night 11/6/17. Most of the passengers are Asian, and there was a very wide variety of dress, from shorts to fancy dress. Not many did the fancy dress up though, mostly informal.

Great Videos. We were in Phuket in November for 5 days, and loved it. Thanks for sharing.

Sam- so very sorry for your loss. Prayers to you and all the other people involved in this terrible tragedy.

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Royal Caribbean is owned by Celebrity.

 

 

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Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Azamara and Pullmatar are all owned by: Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

Prayers to all the families involved in the terrible accident today.

Interesting question. We had a cruise reserved with $100 through Next Cruise. We had to change it, and had to put down an additional $900 for the 4 of us, as they had converted us to a non refundable deposit. I have no idea how they determine which cruises to make refundable and which non refundable deposits.

There are different prices for cruises. The lowest price is the non-refundable deposit. There are also prices for a regular deposit. Talk with your Travel Agent (Celebrity, or your personal TA). If you book with a regular deposit, it would be refundable.

I am confused about the passport or picture copies. Do I just need to take color photocopies of our passports? We leave for our SE cruise next week, so I better get on it!

 

 

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We sailed o the Millennium 11/12/17 sailing round trip out of Singapore, with port stops in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Phillipines and Malaysia. When we boarded, we were never asked for a cop of our passport, Celebrity just took them, and processed our visa's for Vietnam and also our entry card for the Phillipines. We needed to show them when we got on and off the ship at those ports.

I did a live review from our sailing, here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2563457

Yes, US Citizens will need a Visa, which your ship SHOULD issue. You should contact your

cruiseline, and inquire with them to be sure. We were on Celebrity Millennium, and the ship did our Visa's. It was $6.00 pp, and was charged to our sea pass. I had contacted Celebrity before we sailed, to be sure.

Just keep in mind that the ship will not wait for you if return late from your private tour. That is why for the last two 30 years of cruising we take the ships tours.

 

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We have been on 47 cruises, and very seldom take ship excursions. We do our homework before we go, checking out reviews of tours and plan to be back to the ship 1-2 hours before our scheduled time. We have had so many wonderful tours of places most tourists don't get to see. Most all are very small size excursions, with very personalized service.

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We just returned from 6 weeks in Asia. One of our port stops was Langkawi. We had a wonderful day. We docked, and got off the ship on our own, first thing. We left the ship, and there were many taxi drivers wanting our business. We knew what we wanted to do for our day, hire a taxi and tour the island on our own. The first taxi driver wanted $400. Ringgets. We were not going to pay that much. We walked out of the fenced area, and there were more taxi drivers. A driver approched us, and he spoke very good English. He said he would take us for $300. Ringgets, so we went with him. This is what we did:

We left the port area and drove up to the Langkawi sky bridge:

www.panoramalangkawi.com/skybridge/

Our driver dropped us there and we purchased our tickets, and went up in the Gondola to the top. We then viewed the panorama views, then walked down to the bridge. These were awesome views! We spent about 1.5 hours here, then met our taxi driver at the entrance. From there, we drove around the Island and stopped at a couple beaches on the way for pictures.

Our next big stop was here:

www.langkawi-info.com/attractions/dataran-lang.htm#

This is a huge statue and all the taxi drivers know where it is. We spent about 30 minutes here viewing and taking pictures. Our taxi driver waited for us.

We then went to a beach:

www.langkawi-info.com/cenang/

We spent 1.5 hours here. Our taxi driver dropped us off near McDonalds, and we agreed to meet him there 1.5 hours later. We walked along the beach, then along the shopping area to do some local shopping.

We had a wonderful day, and returned about 3;00, and our cruise departed at 5;00.

We spent our day with Xuan and had an excellent time. Our day was the best excursion for our Asia trip. Following is a review if our day:

This is the best private excursion we have done! Yesterday, we visited Ho Chi Minh City and booked a private excursion with Xuan, contact him here:

www.tourwithxuan.com. We arrived at our meeting point 10 minutes early and Xuan was eagerly awaiting for us. He had a private driver in a newer SUV for our party of 4. Our first stop was a local market. We had the opportunity of walking through the narrow alleyways. It was a great experience to see many fresh produce there. Then, we visited Thien Hau Temple before taking the trishaw ride around the city. Our next stop was to enjoy Vietnamese coffee on a floating boat called "The Coffee Ship". Then, it was time to enjoy some local cuisine for lunch. After lunch, we visited the War Remnants Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, General Post Office, the former CIA headquarters, City Hall, Rex Hotel, and the Opera House. It was truly a great day to see the interesting sites in the city. We had such an amazing day. We were able to see many sights most Westerners would never get to see. Xuan is very personable, knowledgeable, and speaks excellent English. He is very passionate about his country and his love for sharing his knowledge is through his excursions"

Book with Xuan and you will not be disappointed!! :)

Can't wait to see you and Tom again. Do you know if we filled the last 2 slots on the Moondance in Barbados?

Larry, I don't know. We return home Dec 6, and then I will get caught up on our Silhouette cruise. I've been trying to read the boards here and there, but hard to keep it all straight along with still traveling and having changes in our plans. We were supposed to go to Bali, but the Volcano is errupting and so we stayed with friends in Singapore.

Looking forward to seeing you and Sandy!

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Did they "kick" you off or rather drag you off kicking and screaming!!

Yep, they had to drag us off. Finally, we realized we will be back at sea on 1/26/18 on the Silhouette!!

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We were in the first group called after the walk offs. They started letting people off at 7:20am.

We had to go through immigration each time we left the ship Saturday and when we returned. Sunday morning, we had to go through immigration again.

We flew to Bangkok today for 3 nights to extend our travels. We had a fantastic time on Millennium. The ship is in great condition, and the crew were very friendly. The captain was the friendliest we've ever saw. He attended the shows every evening, doesn't lots of time out and about the ship and the crew adore him. I would definitely recommend this trip to everyone.

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Are you still on the Millenium? Have you had a chance to check out the Lado Strings Duo? If so, what do you think about them? If you get a chance, would you tell them that Sheilah & David say "Hello"? Thanks.

Sorry, we had to get off Millennium yesterday. They had to kick me off, LOL. Sorry, but we did not hear them play.

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They have started to decorate the Millennium for Christmas

At Cafe Al Bacio

In the MDR

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Our arrival into Singapore is for 1:00 today, Saturday (11/25). Originally, we were to arrive at 2:00, but once we boarded the ship, we were told we would arrive an hour earlier. We have been given group numbers to go through immigration at the terminal, and must take our sea pass card, and our passports with us. We are overnight on the ship and will disembark on Sunday morning. We were given #8 to leave Sunday morning, which is at 7:45am.

There were no shuttles offered in Hong Kong or Kota Kinabalu for guests to go into town. It has been very hot and humid with very little rain on port days. Friday was very overcast with a few sprinkles. Today is very cloudy and a high chance of thunderstorms for our arrival into Singapore.

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Friday nights show were the singers and dancers performing a brand new show:

They worked several months to perfect the performance, and we are the first sailing to see the show.

Our captain, Nicholi is very personable and visual, he made the announcement for the show. He is at almost every nights show and out and around the ship

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