bruce45069

On 2/22/2020 at 12:43 PM, bk travels said:

My husband and I were also on the wonderful Jan. 10th cruise.  Sorry I'm a little late in posting, but at least it allows me to respond to several comments.  First, as far as missing ports, most passengers seemed very happy to substitute Sognefjord for the planned stop in Bodo.  It was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery and probably a highlight of the trip.  I think it should be a regular part of the itinerary. 

For those who missed Bergen, though, it would have been very disappointing.  It's a great port with interesting museums and sightseeing.  We easily walked directly from the ship -- with a lot of luggage -- to our lovely hotel, the Clarion Havnekontoret.  Location was fantastic, hotel was lovely, and breakfast was incredible. We stayed a couple of nights and really enjoyed the city.  It's in the southern part of Norway, so warmer than much of the trip.  Stay a day or two if you can. Flying home was a long journey because of a great deal we had on BA,. We took the airport bus from the front of the hotel and flew from Bergen to Edinbugh.  From there we flew to Heathrow and had an overnight layover.  We stayed in a room at the lovely Sofitel right in Terminal 5 and  grabbed some light food for dinner from the M&S in the terminal.  It was so convenient boarding our flight to JFK the next morning. 

Someone also asked about London/Tilbury.  We wanted to spend a few days in London at the start of the trip, and had the great pleasure of seeing Hamilton (affordably) while we were there.  We took the Express Train from Heathrow which was convenient, fast, and easy.  Our connection on to the hotel was more difficult, and I would get a cab from Paddington station to the hotel next time.  The issue was that we had a fair amount of luggage and there were multiple long flights of stairs to make the connection.  Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers!

We stayed at St. Ermin's which is a Marriott boutique hotel.  The location was superb and I would stay there again in a heartbeat. We took an Express Direct car to the cruise ship -- highly recommend it.  I had been struggling with decisions about cost and arrangements for various options, but this was just so easy, relatively affordable, and reliable.  I booked it several weeks ahead of time online. The ship was not very close to town in Tilbury itself.  It wouldn't be a pleasant walk especially in the winter with luggage if you followed some of the alternate online suggestions.

We did book two independent excursions and both were great.  In Tromso we booked a dinner and reindeer sleigh ride at a Sami camp.  It was a fun adventure and the best part was listening to the Sami owner talk about his life and culture.  It was a quick walk from the ship to the pickup point at the Radisson Blu.  We also booked a hunt for the Northern Lights with Glod in Alta and they were really terrific.  They picked up about 12 of us right near the ship at a heated port building, gave us a wonderful seafood chowder at their HQ, then took us in vans to two different sites for the best viewing.  We did see the lights, but there was quite a bit of cloudiness too.  We spent several hours with them and they did provide polar suits and boots, but it was still cold!  I should have used the foot warmers that I had left on board the ship.

In Tromso we were docked almost in the center of town which was really convenient.  There was an International Film Festival at the time (celebrating its 30th anniversary) part of which was held outside!  In the middle of the afternoon! It was a fun experience.  This was  a really great port.  There was considerably less to see in Alta other than the tours, but the ship did provide a shuttle.  The included ship excursions in all ports were quite good.

We also saw the aurora a couple of nights from the ship.  One really lovely thing was that Viking turned off a lot of the exterior lights to give us a good view of the sky, and then sent waiters up to the top deck with cups of hot chocolate.  It was such a nice touch.  We had a lot of cloud cover most nights, so the stars were not as dense and spectacular as we had hoped.  

 

In terms of packing, we found temperatures throughout the ship to be very inconsistent.  There were public areas that were absolutely freezing and other areas that were quite warm.  There are two rooms in the Chef's Table, for example, and the first room was very comfortable. Unfortunately, we were seated in the back room which was dramatically colder at least that night.  My only other disappointment on the ship itself was that the magnificent multi-story video screen in the atrium was broken for almost the entire trip.  By the way, we were extremely impressed with the number and quality of the lecturers on board.  They were really interesting and we made a special effort to attend as many as possible.

This was a lovely cruise on a great ship and I hope those who are still looking forward to their journeys enjoy it as much as we did.

Could you provide a bit more detail on the "Direct Express car" you used in transferring to the cruise ship.  Tried to Google it and could not locate a company by that name...

TIA

Bruce

1 hour ago, Mibele said:

Hello all!  I’m behind in posting.  Here is Day 2 Out of order but they are all there. And which is better - jpeg or pdf?

 

 

 

 

Either will work but I prefer pdf...thanks for posting

We just booked a cruise for next year and one of the incentives was the inclusion of the "signature beverage card"...Since you had this on prior cruises can you tell me what type of drinks are included and is there any limit on the number of times, or dollar amount, that it is used.

Thanks

Bruce

Fellow Celebrity Cruisers....if you have already booked your cruise you might what to check what you paid. Celebrity has lowered some of their base fares and is offering a Pick TWO of 3 cruise promotions (Beverage plan, Paid Gratuities or Shipboard credit) if you are cruising Europe. With the lowering of their base fares this turned out to be a much better deal than the one I had booked in November. Typically no problem to cancel old reservation and book it again under the new fare and promo options. Worth a minute of two to check it out.

Bruce