the penguins

Go straight to your cabin, dump your bags and then head up to the Spa Cafe which is usually a haven of peace and tranquility.

Still depends on the Ports, lots of posts on other threads where the times are being inforced - for example in our case Southampton. As I posted arrive early, just accept that you might be asked to wait and if you are don't make a fuss.

I'm pretty sure you are right. It still doesn't say much for X's internal control system. It would be so much easier if X adopted the Princess system which just shows the prices per day of the 3 individual elements and the cost if you book all three together. Whereas X's system involves them calculating the individual prices for every cabin grade on every sailing. We and others made this point to X's Corporate Office when it reviewing the compolsary AI pricing . The response I got was that it was a great idea and very simple which is perhaps why they didn't adopt it.

A pleasure 😀

Which X ships have "virtual balconies"? I thought only Royal had them.

Arrive early and just accept that you might be asked to wait. Remember the staff at the port controling the lines are not direct X employees and have no connection with X's reservations team or onboard crew. Just be polite and I am sure if there is no line you will be allowed in.

Why on earth would X sell drinks and internet for 💲28 a day? A great deal for you but it sounds like another X error. Just like the chaos caused when it got all the costings wrong on a Silhouette cruise and has told passengers they must pay the difference (with a 10% discount on the new price), move to a cheaper cabin or have their bookings cancelled. See the Post headed "Celebrity not honouring prices" for the full saga.

Another major factor is your Captains Club Status. Elite: 2 hours of free drinks a day (limited menu), free lattes, smoothies, bloody Mary, etc at Elite breakfast and 90 minutes free premium WiFi. Elite+: same 2 hours drinks and breakfast, 240 minutes WiFi plus free speciality coffees, teas and chocolate all day in the Al Bacio, in the MDR (and some other venues). As we don't drink alcohol and have no need for unlimited WiFi the Elite+ benefits make the Simply Sail prices a complete no brainer.

A group of 24 doesn't come close to my definition of small. We always have a private guide and share with one other couple or at the very most 2 other couples. Have you tried sites like Toursbylocals (our personal choice) to see what's on offer.

You should also factor in the daily gratuities of 💲17.50 or 💲18 in Concierge which will be added to the Sail Only Prices. Deducting that from the AI price leaves you 💲70 for WiFi and drinks. If you spend more than that per day go for AI. If you spend less, we would never come close, Sail Only is perfect. Neither is right or wrong and it's great that we now have the choice again.

Trains: for any one considering this option it is important to note that the train drivers and other rail employees have now been holding regular strikes for over 6 months and there is no sign of the dispute being settled. On strike days the entire rail network is virtually at a standstill. Geoff

Scheduled Journey time: 2 hours 25 minutes. Address of Bus Station is : Harbour Parade. Distance from Cruise Terminal: 1 mile. Taxi from Bus Station to Cruise Terminal: 7 minutes Taxi cost: £5.

Perhaps they make exceptions for Texans😂 Sorry our Grandson is a Texan. Just checked again and I missed the first bit: Tickets include 2 medium size bags (70 cm x 45cm x 30 cm) each weighing a maximum of 20 kilos or 1 large case (75cm X 50cm X 32 cm) max weight 20 kgs. The charge of £8 applies over the above numbers or weights.

The coach (bus) from London Victoria Coach Station is the cheapest easiest way to get from London to Southampton Dock. You can book on line direct with National Express. The are 3 prices of tickets: fixed non refundable, changeable for a fee and fully flexible/refundable. Same seats. Bags to go in the hold are £8 (approx 💲10 ) a bag extra. Early booking recommended.

X actually has 3 groups not 2 as you suggest: 1) is people on an X tour. 2) Elite and above plus Suites who also get priority. 3) everyone not in 1 and 2. The difficulty for passengers with private tours arises when some members fall into Group 2 and the rest are in Group 3. In the past Captain's Club Hosts have, albeit unofficially, helped where the majority on a private tour are in Group 2 by giving out passes to the few who didn't qualify for priority.

The offer is wash and fold. We always write on the form "please return on hangers, thank you". We make the please and thank you big and bold and it has never failed.

Loses, surely you jest. The boss (Anita) likes to convert all our OBC into cold hard cash playing roulette ( yes we know about using the slots and cashing out but prefer our fun way of achieving the same thing) and has never made a loss yet. 😀

My advice. Just enjoy your time somewhere that hopefully won't have any internet access. Get out on deck watch the burgs, the birds and possibly even whales, penguins and seals. The "modern" world will still be waiting when you return. Enjoy

Correct. The tips will be automatically added but you can ask to have them taken off or reduced. I was just highlighting that if/when you do this you are removing tips from some crew which you have no way of replacing. If the question is should you remove the autotips? My answer would be a catergoric no.

Different people organise it differently but the ones I organise work as follows: 1) I arrange it with the Casino Host (not the Manager). We agree which machine we will use. I like one with a 💲5 bet so each participant gets 3 pulls, a proper handle to pull and that has a giant bonus "wheel" to add to the excitement. 2) I also agree with the host what prizes the Casino will provide - usually Casino Credits for the top 3 players plus key rings, pens etc for the others. 3) you should have a full set of rules which clearly sets out the conditions - I inherited a set which I was told would ensure that, in the case of a big win there would be no tax to pay - cannot guarantee this is so as regrettably we have never been that lucky. I also issue Player Cards which is a bit more work for me but makes it very quick and simple on the day. On the last Pull we did precovid we had 80 participants and it took less than 10 minutes to take all the money and complete the paperwork. The casino converted all of 💲15's of odd notes into 💲100 bills which the Casino Host fed into the machine. 4) at the end I take the winning slip to the cashier and they give me the exact split of bills needed to pay everyone out. For example in our last 80 x 💲10 and 240 X 💲1which makes the paying out very quick. 5) I divide the winnings as follows: A) everyone gets an equal share rounded down to the nearest . B) the person with the highest score gets their share, plus all the odd cents plus the top casino prize. C) the next 2 top scores get their share plus the Casino Credit. If you would like a copy of the rules I use please email me: geoffanita at hotmail dot com. Good luck Geoff

Yes you can. However part of the "prepaid" tips go to staff that you don't see and have no way of tipping individually. You can get a breakdown of how the "pre paid" tips are allocated from Guest Relations. Please no debates about if this is right or wrong its how the Celebrity system works.

Once you are down around the peninsular the emphasis might be on the "Almost". You will need the faster ( premium) internet to be able to post on Cruise Critic.

We look forward to meeting you on the Transatlantic part as we will be onroute to Dallas to visit our grandson - he invites us to stay before or after all our TA's. We love TA's and the whole atmosphere onboard is totally different and much more relaxed than on a traditional cruise. Lots more shows, lectures, activities/competiions and pre Covid the Officers joined in with a lot of the activities. Pre Covid the number of CC activities was also high (slot pulls, cabin crawls, pocker runs, book groups, chocolate sampling etc) but post Covid the number of these events has diminished. If you visit the Roll Call we are already taking "provisional" numbers for a Slot Pull. The weather can vary but we have sat out on the balcony on every TA and as this one does the more southly route we expect to do so again. As always you can join in a much or as little as you want. Geoff and the boss (Anita).

Great. Please let us know how you get on. It's always annoying when you don't know the ending and your experience might help others. What ship and date is your cruise?

You should also note that it's 25 minutes on the tender each way so getting everyone on the same one would make life easier.