CruiserFTL

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

 

You are in port long enough.  We did this tour with Zealandier last week.  Zealandier will give you a tour of the area around Tauranga and get you the tickets to Hobbiton for a specific time.  Once there they hand you off to the Hobbiton staff where you will go on a 2 hour tour with a guide.  Hobbiton has 40 person busses so you're not going to be with a small group for that part.  The Zealandier bus held up to 11 passengers.

 

Hobbiton is no longer selling their tour to cruise lines from what we have been told.  They apparently lost $1000's in food and staffing costs when the ships failed to make port.  With their latest attraction opening they have plenty of business from other sources and don't need the hassle that cruise ships add to the equation.  Would recommend contacting Zealandier, Viator, or another independent company if you want to do Hobbiton.  From our very recent experience you won't regret it, it's wonderful.

Thank you for your input...

The trouble is that we are trying to do the tour from Aukland and not Tauranga as our ship will not make port there. It seems that from Aukland it is just to risky for any tour operator to take on, given our departure time.

15 minutes ago, Karaboudjan said:

 

My understanding is that the Hobbiton tour itself sends people through in groups of a particular size, so your ability to 'go small' might be limited.  However, all of the excursion operators that I have looked at cater to cruise passengers and are well informed on the ships' schedules so I doubt that they would offer a tour if they think it is risky.

Thanks that has been the problem. I guess we just aren't in port long enough.

We are arriving on the Celebrity Edge on April 18th 2024. Trying to find out if this is a do able excursion. We are in port from 6AM to 4PM and would like to do a private tour for 1-3 couples so that we would not have any stragglers and can get in and get out. If this is possible, can you recommend any car services or tour operators that can help.

I have a question, we are on the Edge April 14th sailing and my wife really wants to go to Hobbiton. We are in port from 6am to 4pm. Is this to risky to do and if not can you suggest a tour operator. looking to go with 1 or 2 other couples. Keeping it super small so we can get in and get out. Thanks in advance for your help

Hello again

Today I am posting a video of the wake of the ship.

Enjoy

Anywhere from $8 to $12 per person. When you arrive there is a taxi stand that fills up the cab (van) and depending on the number of people the rate changes. When we were there, there were 7 ships in port and it was virtually impossible to get a private cab.

Great review. Thanks for the info.

A question for anyone who has been onboard the Reflection as I am going this November. I have never been on a ship with what appear to be glass extenders around the railings. I LOVE to lean on I guess, open railings, to get some nice air etc. Is the whole ship encased like that?????? Anyone know the point of it?

I also love to lean on the open railings and you could find me doing so on several occasions. So the best area for this is on deck 15 Lawn deck Forward. If you take the Forward elevators to Deck 15 and exit it starts there and continues towards the bow.

Check out this video to see both Port and Starboard sides.

I also like to get near the water to see the waves and breaking water. You can do this on Deck 5 which also has some open railing. Be forewarned that Port side is the smokers section. Once at the rail no problem, but you do need to walk through the cloud if you want to be on the port side.

Check out this video.

Loving your review, pics & video's. When you went to Maho how long did it take you to get there from the ship? Was there any problem getting back to the ship? Thanks for any help.

We went to Marigot and then Maho but it only takes about 20 minutes to get to Maho from the port. Now getting back is another story. Traffic was much heavier and took close to an hour to get back. No problem finding transportation, it is very easy but they don't like to leave till they are full and try to pick up passengers all the way down the strip.

Tommy

Yes I love my Go Pros!

Hello Friends

I just wanted to post 2 new videos to this thread to go with the others.

This video is of our dive in St Thomas at Coki Beach. This is a very nice beach quiet and many many fish to see in only waist deep water. I am a certified diver and went on a resort dive with my friend who was trying scuba for the first time. Coki Divers do a fine job of getting you ready and watching you throughout the dive. If you have snorkeled before but would like to enjoy staying under the water I would highly recommend this location and this company. They only work with 4 people per dive master and for us, it was just the 2 of us. Enjoy the video

This next video is our trip to Maho (airport) Beach St Maarten. I ran out of battery before getting the real big planes but did catch 2 small and 2 large. along with a nice drive in heavy traffic along the beach.

I still have a few more videos for you so stay tuned.:)

Loved reconfirming my experience with yours and reliving it all over again with your thoughts!:)

Now let me qualify, at sail away with over 50 from our CC group, I made sure and introduced my self to one of the bartenders at Sunset with a 'firm' glad to meet him hand shake. They did not stock the red wine my wife liked on the Premium pkg, he had it there that night and for the rest of the cruise. We parted at the end of the cruise with another 'firm' thank you very much handshake:rolleyes::D

 

A lot of what we read here on CC is from stuffed shirts that want to still sail on a cast system ship like the Titanic! A Celebrity cruise is one of the most fun, relaxing, and wonderful weeks of vacation we have experienced. OK, off my soap box, back in line at the Sunset.

Here here!!!!!

Sent from my Galaxy Note II Lets Cruise!!!!

This is an internet myth, or it was never enforced when we were on in Nov. Many, and I mean many times there were mere minutes between my visits with the guys behind the Sunset bar:D

I agree with Wallie... suck it down and have another!

Just got this... Love the ports of call but not sure it can be done in 7 Nights:D

Ok... Sorry friends, I have been busy. I keep walking around the house looking for a bartender or a buffet.:D

I wanted to talk about the entertainment. I found it to be enjoyable. I really liked the Sin City show and recommended it to everyone I met. Do get there EARLY it does fill up quick, and if you like old Vegas you have to see the preshow. I really did enjoy all the bands and performers and would love to include some of the videos but the royalty police will not allow it.

So here is a couple of videos you might enjoy.

How about a ride in the elevator

Believe it or not they have to mow the grass

enjoy

Did you feel the ship 'rocked' a lot? It really didn't bother me, but it did surprise me. Seas seemed pretty calm.

I was on the 1-25-14 sailing and yes the ship rocked more than I thought it should with the new stabilizers. I felt at times I might get thrown out of bed. I just laid back and enjoyed the ride! On day there was very heavy winds and I think the ship was just catching them wrong, but again it did not bother me but it was one of my more bumpy rides.

As for the crew in my review I did state that I did have one bad experience with a bartender and noticed others did to. This was set right by the Assistant Bar Manager and the excellent care of a Bar Server. I loved my experience with the Crew! I also was on the premium bar package and never felt that it was an issue. If I wanted a drink in my hand I had it with no wait at all anywhere except for evenings at the Martini bar which was always packed. So I made the Molecular bar my evening haunt and loved every minute of it and can't wait to hang at it on my May Solstice cruise.

If you check out my walk around deck 15 video that was shot on the second sea day, mid day. You will see the Bar servers out and about.

Frozen Strawberry Margarita... The trick is drinking enough so that the top part has a place in the glass.:D

Here are two more time lapse videos for you.

The first one is leaving the port of St. Thomas.

This next one is leaving the port of St. Maarten.

This video is of St. Maarten in the background and I do a full 360 around the Sunset bar.

I am sorry that I did not get any video from the San Juan sail away but that was during dinner.

Speaking of dinner the MDR had some very good meals, yes not five star but still very good meals.

There was a grand buffet brunch on the morning of the San Juan port day. It was not listed in the celebrity today in any big fashion. I did find out later that they do this for a reason. It seems that too many people would show up and not allow everyone to have as good or comfortable time at this event. So it is something that you either search out or find out about so that you do get to attend. It did make for much lighter crowds and much easier to get to the food that you wanted without any wait.

I can not take credit, JW has become a friend, he does it to be shared. We sailed with him on the Reflection last Nov, and we will be sailing with him and 6-10 others again this Nov on the Equinox.

You are right Wallie.

I took advantage of this also.

And we will also use these for the Solstice Cruise in May.

Thanks for the welcome home.

Okay let's back up and start from the beginning we were pretty excited to get on board the ship and we arrived very early to the port about 9:30 9:45 AM.

We gave our luggage off to the porters, said goodbye to it, enjoyed the nice stroll up to the TSA checkpoint to which we started the wait in line for to open and start letting us through. The line opened up at about 10 AM YAY! we said and we started to head in. Walked right up to the ticketing gate no problems at all got our IDs checked, got our sea pass cards and headed for the nice luxurious waiting room. That's where it all went wrong, seems that they were having a problem getting everybody off the ship and we were sitting in a nice ice cold waiting room staring out at the reflection wishing we were on board. This lasted for several hours and even the passengers that were coming from the great White North were complaining about how cold it was and we are all wishing we could get outside to enjoy the beautiful day South Florida was having. Well now I'm getting hungry and I'm dreaming about the drinks that I have been missing while sitting here yay they have opened up the lines and we are headed on board. I know everybody likes to stop at bistro on five but we decided to head for the mass bar and the mast Grill for our Long Island iced teas and hamburgers and hotdogs.

This was a great choice and we enjoyed our food and the company that we met for the first time on board. Larry and Carol happened be at the mast Grill and then went over to the mass bar and we followed and drank ourselves to a fun time. Cabins opened up at about one o'clock with no problems we got to ours it was laid out beautifully and Jim Bryan was there to greet us. We get ourselves acclimated around the ship but now it's time for Muster drill. After Muster drill we headed ourselves up to the Sunset bar to get set for sale away. Here is a time lapse video of our sale away out of the port of Miami.

we would receive a letter of apology for the embarkation prom problems the next day from celebrity I will include this later.

Cool! That was the Mast Grill, right? I will share that with our roll call, if it is okay.

Share away!!!! I am sure you will enjoy the ice cream. The ice cream in the Ocean View is also yummy.

Nice videos. Not to be too technical, but the first video is actually deck 15(we saw ourselves in the video by the way). The Solstice deck is actually the smaller deck 16, that you get to from stairs towards the back of deck 15

Aghhhh...:o You are so right... This is Lawn deck 15

Still detoxing from all the premium liquor:D

Quick question- Are there soft serve ice cream machines and, if so, where are they? :)

In fact you can see them in this video as I walked around the Solstice deck.

Also see Reflection 1-25-14 review

Yes there are they are at the master grill

Sent from my Galaxy Note II Lets Cruise!!!!

I recognize Marious! We spent MANY an evening there during our cruise and he was terrific! One night, my Scorpion's Kiss had the imfamous scorpion from the bottom of the bottle! When I screamed at it in my drink, he smiles, removed it, then ATE IT!!! Everyone at the bar loved that, and loved the Molecular!!

That's funny he was trying to get me to eat it, but I just let it stay swimming in the bottle.