SPacificbound

Rhapsody of the Sea Navigator of the Sea Love the Vision class and Radiance class ships, no interest in the big ones.

I also agree with use your credit card as much as possible. As for Euros we go the bank ATM also, I would think 500 E should be more than enough.

Most on an individual ship would be Queen Mary 2.

If I were choosing it would have to be Vision, a wonderful 'little' ship.

Condition of ship, and mainly the food. Thank you!

If you have a time I would really like to hear about ship related things, we get Jewel September 28. Hope the storm doesn't affect your trip too much.

When you first go to your cabin to drop off your carryons, and then you are supposed to physically go to the muster station.

You can find B2B on Cunard's Queen Mary 2, not all year, but if B2B is what you want, and a grownup ship is okay with you, take a look.

This was our experience also on our August 2023 sailing Iceland, Greenland and Canada. We're done.

My first thought also was Royal Caribbean as the best for family. For a Transatlantic, then would you be planning to fly home?

I agree with you 100%!

Rear facing afts are my favorite, but they book quckly.

We are to an age that "value" really isn't part of the discussion, 79 & 82. I always book balconies, because having the peace of seeing the water 24/7 is what we decided was the most important part of the cruise, right after itinerary. They don't have to be large, there just has to be one. And about 10 years ago we decided we deserved to be comfortable, so we fly ether business or first. We also book better hotel rooms than we used to. Comfort trumps value.

Just off B2B Celebrity Summit August 30 and get on RC Jewel of the Seas September 28 for B2B. That will be it for both of them. Honestly we have run out of places we want to cruise to or from, other than what Queen Mary 2 can do for us.

We haven't for several years, but when we did just went to local bank and placed order. Now we just use debit cards at banks, and mostly use credit cards for everything else.

We don't keep track, and our cruises always involve land travel also, but probably our first cruise. Our first cruise, we booked online for RCCL Rhapsody of the Seas, Sydney to Honolulu, 18 nights. Then we booked around it, which involved flying from LAX to Auckland, spending two weeks traveling in New Zealand, flying from Queenstown to Sydney and spending eight weeks traveling in Australia, ending back in Sydney, and after we got to Honolulu we spent about ten days in Hawaii and then came back to the mainland. I was hooked.

It sounds like you want a 'hand holder' type travel agent, and they may no longer exist. The point being there would be a sizable fee for what you want. Doing the research yourself is how you learn to be a traveler, and it is great fun IMHO.

What ever medications your doctor recommends, you will need to bring it yourself, the ships are not equipped to act a pharmacies. .

If you haven't already, start familiarizing yourself with Europe, learn the maps, and what you really want to see first. Our first trip to Europe was a flight to London, then we went to France, Germany, and Italy by rail. Then we discovered cruising! A great first cruise could be Norway, Sweden, Finland, or Belgium, the Netherlands, etc. Or the Amalfi Coast, Italy, Greece, Croatia, etc. Spain and Portugal and the Canary Islands. Another, the British Isles. The cruise lines have lots of options, find what interests you have first, then start looking at itineraries. What you will see on an European cruise will be a little taste here, a little taste there, and then you will start discovering places you will want to go back to. There is also the option of- in Spring take a Transatlantic to Europe and then doing some on your own travel. Or in Fall you can take a Transatlantic that's coming back to the US. Of course time enters into it also, how long can you be gone. The learning is great fun, and the more you see, the more you want to see. 😃 Have fun!!

We did a Celebrity B2B2B South America and it was a great cruise, one of the best.

Has anyone been in this cabin recently? Is it noisy from above? TIA

You will likely get lots of replies of what cruisers get from their TA. What no one is allowed to do is name or recommend a TA. I am one who prefers to make my own reservations, and control my own booking. If you turn your booking over to a TA, from that point on you cannot deal with the cruise line company at all, they will only speak with the TA. Example could be, you notice a price drop but it's a weekend and the TA is closed. You would not be able to act on that, you would need to wait for the TA. Literally everything has to go through the TA. How you choose to book is your choice. Welcome to Cruise Critic! 🙂

The Concierge lunch was about 2:00 in the MDR. Our boarding time was 1:00-1:30, we brought our carryon stuff up to the cabin and saw the invite for the lunch, so went down and were seated right away. There was no additional fee. Luggage got to us around 5 PM or so.

It would be helpful if you included the cruise line, ship and itinerary.

We have had a pool and hot tub at home for over 30 years. There is no way either of us would enter a public, hotel or ship pool or hot tub.