the penguins

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Done 😁

sorry nothing received.

geoffanita at hotmail dot com

Geoff

13 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Do you have a link , I googled it and nothing really came up 

We will be in Lisbon for 4 days before a TA 

I have tried to email you but the message was rejected.

Please email me: geoffanita at hotmail dot com (just replace the words with the usual symbols - it stops the robots) and I will send the information. Thanks Geoff

11 hours ago, hcat said:

add to list of crowded ports at times..

santorini, mykonos,  nassau, st maarten

for the Greek islands try Celestyal Cruises which stay later or even overnight enabling you to explore after the big ships have left.

8 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Do you have a link , I googled it and nothing really came up 

We will be in Lisbon for 4 days before a TA 

Hi Mark, If it's OK with you I will email you later today with information to the address at the bottom of your Post. Geoff.

On 5/28/2024 at 9:27 PM, phoenix_dream said:

And this is also causing more and more ports to eliminate cruise stops altogether, or limit them to only the smallest ships or one per day.  And yet the various lines keep building them bigger and bigger and bigger.  It's very frustrating - ports we used to enjoy very much are now wall to wall people.  And there is no real market for the older ships these days - they are not big or modern enough.  So what happens with them?  More port crowding?

One wonders given the size of the ships and the size of the credit card debt if the day will come soon when the bookings start dropping considerably.  CEO's in general tend to do what is best for them right now to earn their bonus, figuring they won't still be around later when these decisions turn out to be disasters and the stocks start falling.  

Port crowding isn't a real issue - just don't follow the crowds and you will be amazed at what you can do - just a few examples:

1) The Bahamas on our last visit there were 3 ships in port each with 2000 plus passengers each. We went with with 4 other passengers for a guided tour of the Primeval Forest (what Bahamas was like before tourism). The total number of visitors booked for the whole day was 20.

2) Akoroa New Zealand we spent a day travelling with the Mail Man visiting farms way up in the hills. Our day included a picnic by a lake, walk along a deserted beach and stunning scenery. Apart from our 4 travelling companions we never saw another passenger from the ship all day. Also stopped for a cream tea at the Giants Garden again not a single passenger from the ship even though the garden was only 15 minutes walk from the pier. 

3) Bora Bora we ignored the beaches and spent time with a guide exploring the WW2 gun emplacements and going up into the hills to see the amazing flowers and scenery.

4) Lisbon the Museum of Death is a must see. Not as morbid as it sounds in fact we intended to visit for 10 minutes to get out of the rain and ended up being there for a lot longer.

Planning these trips is part of the cruise. Look at private guides and share the costs with another couple on the Roll Call - we look for guides with a vehicle that holds 6 and share with one other couple as we like the space. Try putting "unusual things for tourists to do" into Google for every port and you will be surprised at what you will find.

If you really can't find anything at a particular port stay on the ship and enjoy the space.

9 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Regent and Silversea not in any particular order. Have enjoyed Crystal but not sailed with them since they restarted. My parents sailed with them regularly when they first started and loved them so there are options it just depends on destinations, length of voyage etc etc. I still like Holland and we have several longer voyages scheduled with them but in general only longer cruises as there are less children and large affinity groups.  Hope my thoughts help! 

HAL has also sold off it's smaller ships, Fred Olsen snapped up 1, possibly 2. 

7 hours ago, Orator said:

Why do they take you room number when you enter any restaurant?

They also print out a slip which the person escorting you to the table gives to the Waiter. The slip is the Waiters proof to enable them to check they receive the correct tips for the night - if you arrive without the slip just see how quickly the waiter goes to the Check-in Desk to get a copy.

1 hour ago, mcatmcat said:

Hi 🖐️

 

I joined celebrity last year, we sailed from FL☀️ and went to Equinox x2 and silhouette once. I know X 👔is not royal🏄‍♂️ and I was scared since all my friends were telling me that celebrity is for seniors and thats all I was going to find.

 

It wasnt that bad, I saw plenty of Millennial👫🏻 and Gen Z ⛹🏻‍♂️in most activities and walking around the ship. However, a friend who went to Relection like 3 months ago noticed less young people👵🏻. Another friend went to the beyond this month and he told me is was packed🚦 with seniors. Lastly, I watched a youtube video 🎟️of a couple bbaoring the beyond last week and they uploaded almost 2 hours of video for day 1🧳, showing diferente places of the ship🚢 at different time without much editing or effect and I only saw 4 young people. 🗣️

 

Do you think are giving up with celebrity or do you think it is just coincidence? 💬

So many things affect the ages of passengers including: itinerary, length of cruise, dates, ship etc it's virtually impossible to compare one cruise with another.

On 3 successive departures from Southsmpton Silhouette ( we were B2B) cruise 1, 8 nights, 2000 passengers 80 kids, cruise 2, 12 nights 800 passengers, zero kids,  the next cruise (thankfully we has disembarked) 2800 passengers and 400 kids.

3 hours ago, Escruiser1962 said:

Well it was crowded, and I did intuitively avoid those times of year. That didn’t work. 

travel further and use local holidays to your advantage.

for example our grandson lives in Dallas and is already on summer vacation. In the UK schools don't finish until mid July so June and early July will be a lot less crowded.

Also some lines have adult only ships (P and O for example).

The longer the cruise the less kids also cruises that start and end in different ports.

7 hours ago, Mariettte said:

As this couple did, to no avail. Denied boarding last December in Brisbane, Australia. Royal. There was conjecture that they were chosen for bumping because there were no flights involved- they were in their home city.

 

https://au.news.yahoo.com/aussie-couples-holiday-ruined-bumped-from-cruise-before-departure-232922909.html

I have looked at the full report, and the letter, from which it would appear that:

1) the passengers affected were advised some days in advance of the situation.

2) the passenger featured chose to travel to the port in the hope that there would be a "no show" rather than taking any of the other options.

Still very disappointing but not quite how the headline looked.

3 hours ago, mcatmcat said:

Hi 

I was wondering if i can eat at blu, lets say 6pm then do my time later at 930pm on formal and regular nights?

 

Thanks 

I assume you are in Aqua in which case you can eat in Blu at any time.

9 hours ago, indy406 said:

It seems certain that large cruise ship access to Norway's fjords is going to be banned beginning in 2026. I'm wondering if Celebrity's M, S and E class ships will be allowed into the fjords in 2025? I see the itineraries but can't be sure if they're going into the fjords or are going to drop anchor or dock somewhere and it will be a bus trip to an overlook. It would be nice to know before putting down a deposit.

How important are the Fjords in your planning?

If you look closely none of the big cruise lines really do the Fjords. For example compare X's itineraries with the 12 night Classic Round-trip from Bergen on Hurtigruten (22 ports and days of scenic cruising) and you will see what I mean. No need for H's more expensive Expedition Cruise the Classic works fine.

To be clear we have done the Fjords on Royal, Celebrity and Hurtigruten - all good in their own ways but for Fjords, Scenic Cruising and a true local experience Hurtigruten is unbeatable.

9 minutes ago, Saltykitty said:

Donna thank you so much for your reply. Very helpful. I dont look forward to dealing with the insurance paperwork so the refund for yhe add ons automatically is great news. Yes I am very disappointed as i planned this for a year but there is nothing to do except go home. I know there are more vacations to come one day

You will also proably have to wait until the cruise finishes before X will issue the paperwork needed  for the insurance as they will say you could still join the cruise later.

15 hours ago, FolsomMike said:

Our Millennium cruise starts tomorrow. (Yay!) But the weather forecast for Tuesday is horrendous (1-2 inches of rain). We have a Celebrity excursion to Fuji booked. Anyone have any idea what the chances are that it will be cancelled if the forecast doesn’t improve ?

no such thing as bad weather only the wrong type of clothing. If the your goes ahead take it and enjoy.

10 minutes ago, Dr Jay 24 said:

Thanks for the tip.  I kind of thought it might be like that with the “small group.”  
 

Maybe the independent guide is the way to go.  Not sure if it lets you give names on this board, but if you remember the name of the guide would you mind sharing?  

we always book independent guides and lots of companies offer the service. We have used Toursbylocals in many countries and never had a bad guide. You deal direct with the guide all the money is handled via the Head Office in Canada, the guide only gets paid after the tour and you get a full refund if the ship doesn't dock. The best guides get booked up very quickly. We choose a guide with a vehicle that holds 6 passengers and share with one other couple from the Roll Call - we like the space.

On 5/23/2024 at 7:21 PM, mahdnc said:

The other bizarre thing specific to our sailing is that Celebrity's computers can't handle the fact that we are crossing the international date line and thus is charging us for only 16 nights (16x $27.99 = $447.84) when our cruise is actually 17 nights long.  Fri Apr 18th occurs on two consecutive days during our cruise.  This international date line problem shows up in other ways in our Cruise Planner.

 

we did the first Transpacific on Solstice - Corporate forgot about the extra day and left the Cruise Director one Guest Entertainer short. Funny thing was the CD spent several hours trying to make the numbers work before he finally realised what the problem was. He arranged for a wonderful variety show which included him being able to demonstrate his stunt man skills.

Nothing changes with X

3 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Personally, I prefer to be reachable by phone/text/email at all times. My free minutes are worthless to me.

Choice is a great thing. 

12 hours ago, markeb said:

Curious who you were trying to tip individually? Dining room, housekeeping, bartender?

 

That kind of matches what we were told on our last cruise. An additional gratuity to our stateroom attendant supposedly went to him (no one else in the pool). Same for the butler. We couldn't tip to the individual in Luminae; they split all the tips (which makes sense). The breakdown that gets posted periodically includes a $2 "other hotel services" that I assume goes to some of the back of the house people (they may get something from housekeeping?). We were able to designate the Retreat bartender; there are almost no transactions in the lounge to tip on, and I just don't carry cash on the ship.

 

And, yes, I'd assume they're required to turn in cash tips. That's the only way to make the accounting work for the auto gratuities if some people pay cash. Pooling the tip jar is pretty standard at most bars so that's not unusual. 

Correct the $2 goes to the staff you don't see (eg laundry, washroom attendants etc).

Dining is the waiter/assistant.

Cabin steward is separate.

Bars tend to pool as they work together especially places like the Martini Bar which is more like a show.

Somelliers get the tips added to each drink.

3 hours ago, asctony said:

Drink packages on Princess are cheaper than Celebrity but they have a drink maximum (alcoholic) per day where as Celebrity does not. 

Princess limit is 15 alcohol drinks per day. Plus, in Princess' Plus pkg equal to Celebrity Classis plg Princess has many high end drinks that are only in Celebrity Premium pkg.

Gratuities are included in Princess'. Celebrity use to include Gratuities, but not now! That is at least $216 for 7 days.

X doesn't have specific drink limit but it does include a condition that drinking must be responsible. We have seen passengers escorted back to their cabin being told very clearly that they must remain there until the following morning and that any attempt to leave their cabin would result in more drastic action being taken. All done very quietly and without fuss.

On 5/19/2024 at 8:08 PM, travellerin1984 said:

For couple of years ago we booked an european flight 9.15 am out of Barcelona. It was an early morning but we made it with time to spare. I think 11.15 is no problem of you disembark so early you can. 

The OP is travelling International not European. Minimum check in time for International is usually/typically 3 hours.

We would never book a flight so early as delays can happen at every stage of the journey - late arrival at Port, delayed immigration at Port, traffic to airport etc. 

9 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Drink packages on Princess are cheaper than Celebrity but they have a drink maximum (alcoholic) per day where as Celebrity does not.  If you buy a drinks package when on sale in the cruise planner, you can get a pretty good discount (on Celebrity).  Currently, the premium package is listed at 35% off, so $65 per day.  

 

MSC's drink packages are also less than Celebrity's but we've always had one included in the price of our cruise when booking Yacht club so I haven't paid a lot of attention to how it stacks up with regard to inclusions.

 

NCL's package is "free" in that you still pay taxes and gratuities...so not really free but significantly cheaper than the other cruise lines.  You can upgrade your package as well.

At the prices quoted Princess would seem to be by far the cheapest as for £50 (approx $65 ) you get the drinks, WiFi and grats plus a few odd extras like special desserts at dinner.

1 hour ago, matt'smom said:

If a excursion is sold out, is there a chance it could open once on board?

check your cruises Roll Call as there maybe private tours you can join which are usually much better value than X's offerings.

Or book your own private guide (this is our preferred option) and get other Roll Call members to share with you.

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

1) Yes.  Reddit doesn't read itself.

 

2) A lot.

 

3) He drinks less.  Do I still have to get premium for both of us?

question 3 - yes. 

Makes me glad our answers to 1 and 2 are no and neither of us drink any alcohol.

What we "save" on drinks/wifi we spend on private guides.

Choice is wonderful

53 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

To expand on the alcohol, you can carry some wine and "forget" that you left some wine in your checked luggage

True - but we would be carrying it for "others" as we don't drink any alcohol - perhaps we should offer this as a service for say $10 a bottle cash 🤣

6 hours ago, zitsky said:

Looking at a future Japan cruise 2026, I see extra cost for All Included is maybe $1500 for a $8000 cruise.  It seems if you wait for a sale on WiFi and drink package that Cruise only is the way to go?  It makes no sense to pay extra for basic then upgrade.

My thoughts/questions are:

1) Do you really need the Wifi? Our free Elite + Captains Club minutes are more than enough - share one lot and once that's used you will see if the second lot will last until the end of the cruise. If not use the second lot as a discount on a full package as by then there could well be a special on the remaining days. Free WiFi in every port.

2) how much do you drink? All speciality teas/coffees/chocolate are free if you are Elite+. Japan is port intensive so not much drinking time in the day. 

3) if you are a couple do you both drink the same amount of alcohol?

Do the maths (sorry math) and you may find neither WiFi or drinks packages are the best option. These products are priced to give X a profit I.e. the majority of passengers lose.

No right or wrong just personal choices.