luvtravel88

If your cruise isn't until 2026, you might not be able to reserve yet. Those reservations usually open up about 14 months before, but you could start checking.

You can use the app or bring up the Celebrity website on your device. I like to use my laptop as it's so easy to see everything. Sign in and click on Plan My Cruise and then click on dining. You will then be able to see if you can make reservations yet.

If you are on an E class ship, you will have 4 dining rooms to choose from. You can choose to eat in one, where you can order from all 4 menus, or you can pick and choose to go to different restaurants.

There is a pro, to choose the same restaurant in that you will likely get the same wait staff every night and they learn what you like really quickly. An example is that the first night I ordered an ice tea and thereafter, ice tea came out to me almost as soon as I sat down.

We get bored and like to feel like we're going to different restaurants so we choose to mix it up. Personal preference.

3 hours ago, GreenDice said:

I might have misunderstood Anytime Dining. You can do walk-up anytime but you can reserve as well. Are you saying that these reservations will not be honored? I thought they will hold the table for us at the reserved time so that I don't have to wait with the walk-up crowd. Confused.

They will honor your reservation. We have never had to wait when we've had a reservation. You do have to wait in line to check in each night, but they'll take you right back to your table.

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yorkey's Knob, Jan 2018

 

 

We took the GBR cruise back in Jan 2018, so my information is a bit dated.  When Solstice overnighted at Yorkey's Knob (Cairns), the last tender from ashore was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm local time.  Tendering was then scheduled to resume at 7:30 am the following morning.

 

However there were passengers like my family that had made independent arrangements at Cairns and we needed to be off the ship early in order to be there on time.  So with little announcement/advertising, Celebrity arranged for a couple of very early tenders to get us off the ship.  No guarantees that you will see that arrangement on your cruise, but you should inquire if this is of value to you.

 

Hopefully for you, the tender/shuttle schedule is what Jim posted earlier.

 

 

If you are interested, here is link to the folder of all the Celebrity Todays that were issued during our 12 night GBR sailing.  Also I published a photo review of our cruise that has some information that may be useful for planning even though it is dated and on a different class of ship.

Thank you!!

Kim

We have an over night in Cairns which is tendering in Yorkey's Knob. Would anyone happen to know what time the ship will begin tendering passengers to shore on the second day?

Thanks!!

We have an overnight in Cairns, which is tendering in Yorkey's Knob. Would anyone happen to know what time the tenders will begin transporting people to shore on the morning of the second day we're there?

Thanks!!

Thank you for your help!

We will be on the Celebrity Edge from March 3 - April 5, 2025. All are Australia and NZ cruises, round trip from Sydney.

I'm carefully planning shore excursions for all of our ports. Tenders will take time but we are also several miles away from the city centers even when docked and will have to take shuttles into town.

Kim

We will be on our first Celebrity cruise since reaching elite status.

One of our benefits is priority tender service at tender ports of call. We are doing 3 B2B and have several tender ports.

My understanding is that we will not need to get tender tickets since we are elite. Is this correct?

Do we just go to where the tender boats are and get on?

Also, we have complimentary access to the Persian Garden on one port day. How do we use this? Do we just show up to the spa with our sea pass card or do we need to make a reservation prior, just telling them we have elite status?

Thanks for the help!!

Kim

3 hours ago, tashaaa said:

Thank you all for the responses. 
I still need to think about all the options. We decided that for the first time visiting Australia and New Zealand, we do it on cruise. I know we will see just a little of both, but I think we can make a nice vacation.. 

Maybe there will be some more cruises listed if we do it at the end of 2025. 
I heard that maybe Azamara cruise can be a good one. Only worry that the ships are smaller and the Tasman Sea can be bumpy. 
 

 

We are doing 3 back to back cruises on Celebrity beginning March 3, 2025. The first goes south to wine country and is 9 nights, the second is around NZ and is 13 nights and the third goes up the east coast of Australia to Brisbane, Cairns, Port Douglas and Airlie Beach and is 10 nights.

All are round trip Sydney. You could choose 2 of the three for your 3 week vacation. Prices are reasonable and it's one of their newer ships, the Edge.

Still a tipping question but of a different sort....

I want to give my cabin steward a bit above what my pre-paid gratuities will provide. Should I give additional money in Australian Dollars, NZ Dollars or US Dollars?

Thanks!

19 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

9:30 AM and coming into ChristChurch Harbor.  
 

 

What an absolutely gorgeous picture! You have a winner here!!

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Yes I bring my own Firestick and put in one of the HDMI.    You can either use my video to select HDMI or at least on this ship Channel 100 on live TV takes you to the HDMI port

 

it is like home. You can have live tv or use Roku or Firestock. 
 

We have YouTube TV so we can watch all our live and recorded SF channels. 

Thank you so much for the info.

We'll be on the ship 33 days and to have news other than BBC International would be wonderful. We also have YouTubeTV and it would be great to be able to use it!

Kim

Hi Jim,

I'm enjoying following your trip! We're doing a B2B2B in March 2025 all round trip from Sydney.

I have a question....

You mentioned that your TV had a fire stick on it so you weren't get Celebrity messages. I've never heard of anyone doing that. Did you bring it with you? What channels do you get on it? Is it easy to attach and remove?

Thanks!

Kim

14 hours ago, possum52 said:

The Little National and QT Sydney are both in the CBD (central business district and close to public transport. The Darling is not in the CBD but at Pyrmont which is the western side of Darling Harbour, so not as convenient as the other two hotels. I haven't stayed at any of them but have stayed at hotels close by to the Little National and QT.

Thank you! I appreciate your vast knowledge on the area. You've helped a lot of people with their planning!

Kim

Would anyone care to comment on Little National Hotel, QT Sydney or The Darling? All 3 are top 10 on tripadvisor but I wondered about their location. We will be there several days, pre-cruise.

Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the advice!

Kim

Ww will have one day in Tasmania and are having trouble deciding which place to sightsee. The Richmond tour includes a drive to Mt. Wellington, a visit to Richmond and to the Bonorong Wildlife Park. The tour to Port Arthur visits several sights on the Peninsula.

Thanks for any advice.

If you're interested in Gaudi, Casa Batllo is a wonderful house to visit. Also the Picasso museum in Bario Gotic is also fantastic. The Picasso Museum is right across the square from the Cathedral.

We personally feel claustrophobic in an inside cabin. We only chose to stay in one the very first time we cruised. We had an issue in our cabin during our last cruise, and we were put in an inside room while they fixed the problem with ours. We both said, no again, to the inside room.

We did a guided tour of Segrada Familia and felt like we would have missed a lot without it. Everywhere you look is symbolic or represents something. That tour was about 2 hours and included going up into the towers.

Parc Guell is quite large but they have guided tours there that you can reserve. If I remember correctly, they are about an hour long.

Casa Battlo had an audio guide and took about 90 minutes to go through.

I would check opening times and try to be at one of the sites as it opens. If you have a choice, I would choose Segrada Familia first as it gets outrageously crowded and there are people everywhere.

Parc Guell also gets crowded but it's an organized crowd. Google directions on where to enter the Parc. There are a couple of entrances, but you need to go into the main one especially if you're taking a tour.

Casa Battlo sits along a street and there are organized lines for the crowds. If I remember correctly, there was a separate line for those that had pre-booked tickets.

I would reserve tickets for each of the sites as soon as you can so you will have your choice of times.

It will be quite a busy day, but doable.

I'm not sure about customs when coming in on a cruise ship. We were told that if we wanted to leave the ship, we would have to be on a tour, either a ships tour or private tour. I know we had to show our tour tickets at customs to be allowed to go further. We chose Alla tours and they were fantastic. We were docked in St. Petersburg for 3 days and we did go to Moscow on the Capsan train on the 2nd day. It was a VERY long day. We had to meet our group at 6:00am and were on the train at 7:00am. We arrived back at to our cabin at 1:30am the next day. It was a wonderful day and we're so glad we went but if we were in St. Petersburg for only 2 days, I probably wouldn't spend a day in Moscow. It is a 4 hour train ride each way, and if you need to be back to the ship to depart, it may not leave you much time in Moscow. The 8 hours we spent there, wasn't nearly enough. Traffic is horrible and we ended up getting off our bus and taking the subway to Red Square. Those 8 hours allowed us a tour of Red Square, which was phenomenal as well as a quick walk through GUM department store and a ride on the subway with several stops to see the mosaics, sculptures and chandeliers that are in the corridors of the subway stops.

But.....there is so much to see in St. Petersburg , the 2 days we spent there, were a whirl.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure you're in line to get off the ship before the ship arrives in port. We were in line an hour early and there were still about 20 people ahead of us. We found that the cruise ship allowed their tour groups to get off the ship first, so when we got to customs, the lines were outrageous. It took us about an hour in line and we were late starting our tour. I had organized the tour with Alla and had advertised it on our cruise forum here at Cruise Critic. There were 12 of us and we met up on the ship each morning and went through customs together so we all met the tour bus at the same time. That was very helpful!

The lines the first day were the worst and days 2 and 3 went much more quickly. Also, everyone was getting off the ship at the same time on Day 1, but tours met and left at different times on Days 2 and 3.

SHIP: Eclipse

CABIN #: 8257

DECK #: 8

CLASS: 1A

AREA: Mid Ship

BED NEAR: Veranda

QUIET?: Very quiet.

BALCONY VIEW: Amazing - on the hump. Could see forward, out and down to clear water.

BALCONY SIZE: Oversized

WIND A PROBLEM?: On a windy day, if you were standing at the rail, you could definitely feel it. When sitting at the table it was not noticeable.

SOOT A PROBLEM?: No

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: This cabin was in a great area of the ship, near the midship elevators, but the room has a vibration problem. We could feel the vibration 24/7. Most of the time it was slight, but there were times each day that it was bad enough that we left the cabin to escape it. Although not a problem for us, the cabin steward closet is right outside the door, so there was usually some kind of cleaning cart or other boxes right outside our door.

We’re is 8263 next week

I’m concerned now, as we’re 3 cabins along

Do you think it was a problem just with your cabin ?

I don't know.

I do know we felt vibration on this ship in more places and more often than we have before.

We got off the Eclipse this past Friday after a wonderful Mediterranean Cruise.

I chose and booked this cabin 20 months ago and was very excited to have a cabin on the front hump. It's in a great location, pretty close to the midship elevator, through a double glass door that opens automatically when necessary, but otherwise remains closed, keeping out noise from the center.

This is a typical balcony room and was great, except..... the room vibrated.

It vibrated 24/7, but most of the time it wasn't too bad and we were able to sleep through it. Sometimes though is was pretty bad, enough that we would leave the room to find somewhere that was still.

The cruise was 12 nights and after living with that for that length of time, I find that when I lay down in bed at night, I still feel like I'm vibrating.

We did not complain as I knew the ship was fully booked and there would have been no where for us to go. If we hadn't been able to sleep, I would have said something.

Someone who is more sensitive to movement could really be bothered staying in this cabin.

You are not allowed to bring soft drinks onto the ship. You can bring wine but will need to pay a corkage fee.

You will only pay a corkage fee if you take your bottle into a dining area. If you keep the bottle in your cabin, you could take a glass of wine with you to dinner, or just enjoy it in your cabin.

For those who have been to Bora Bora before, what do you consider the best thing to do there ? Also, is it easy to get a cab at the cruise port in order to then get around?

You might toggle down on CC main page and click on Pacific Islands under Port of Call. There is lots of advice there on what to do in Bora Bora.