ceba

6 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

As someone else mentioned, upgrade your room type if that is possible.  Inside and Oceanview rooms only give you two points per day, whereas a Veranda will give you 3 points.  Concierge and Aqua Classes will give you 5 points per day and a Suite will give you the most.  

Or you may be able to sail in a cabin as a single to get double points ... might be worth your while if you are trying to get up to that elite level.  

Most ways will cost you but sometimes, if you are in a veranda ... upgrading to a concierge cabin may not be all that much more.  Hopefully, you can figure out something for that August cruise that will sail you into the next level.  

I am a solo cruiser in Aqua. I’m also not the kind of person to spend more money for a short cruise to get to the next tier. The bennies aren’t that great.  It is funny though just how motivated you can get to shoot for those 5 little points 😂. I mean 5 points, come on!! 

51 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

 

As someone said, upgrade or sometimes Celebrity has two day cruises which might get you there.  Either way you will probably spend more money than whatever the benefits might be on that next cruise where you qualify for the higher level. 

Haha, you are absolutely correct! 

7 minutes ago, jimzgoldfinch said:

 

You only earn points for the number of days cruised. Try doing on short 3/4 day cruise if there is any available!

 

 

I was afraid of that. I thought I read at one point you could pick up points thru the casino but after re-reading it, those are separate casino loyalty points. Thanks for your answer. 

After my August cruise I will be 5 points short of the next tier level which has decent perks. Is there anyway to pick up extra loyalty points?

We did a similar itinerary over Thanksgiving on Azamara. Wonderful cruise. We’re in our mid 60s and active. We met many people in our same demographic. We also spent 7 days in India doing the Golden Triangle before flying to Dubai to start the cruise. It was a great add on to a fabulous cruise. 

3 hours ago, jimmieg said:

Occasionally they have sales prior to the cruise. We upgraded for $5/day on two recent sailings.

Keep your eyes open.😉

So where do you go to find the sale?

34 minutes ago, CruisingCleo said:

So nice to read such an enthousiastic report! We will board Riviera in Barcelona for the TA on November 13th and can hardly wait. So we much appreciate your reports about everything Riviera. Thank you for taking the time during your precious vacation time to write these. 

I hope the remainder of your cruise will be as enjoyable as the first day!

Mirjam

Exactly what I was going to say. So nice to read a positive post. I board the Nautica from Athens Nov 16. 

Do solo travelers get charged a different amount in a penthouse? 

Kathleen 

When arriving in the majority of European countries the process is this, (assuming you are traveling on one ticket and/or your bags are being checked through to your final destination):

1. At your first point of arrival, go through immigration, which is usually a quick passport check.

 

2. At your final destination, collect bags and go through customs, which is usually a non-event. It's an honor system of "go through the door with the green light if you have nothing to declare, go through the one with the red light if you do." At the green light door, you won't even talk to anyone; you just keep going til you're outside and get a cab.

 

 

 

 

When arriving in the US, (unless coming from one of the few countries in the world where there is pre-clearance for US immigration and customs at the departure point):

1. and 2. Both immigration and customs are done at the first point of arrival in the US, regardless of whether you are connecting onward or the first point of arrival is also your final destination.

Thank you. This is good info for me to file.

Thank you!

I have a Lufthansa flight in Nov from DEN to ATH with a stop in FRA.

Will I have to collect my bags in FRA and go through immigration? Or will my bags be checked through to ATH? Also if I do have to collect my bags in FRA my stop is 1hr 15mins. Will there be enough time to get this done? This is on one ticket. Thanks for your help.

We loved our Christmas cruise. We spent Christmas Day on Easter Island. Santa showed up for a few hours that morning. The kids on our cruise were in their early 20s. We received a small gift from Oceania. As mentioned before the day was pretty low keyed and we loved it.

Skip the steak. Go directly to the "aragosta fra diavola."

I had to look it up. Looks fabulous! We’re sailing in about 3 months and will defiantly be ordering this. Thanks for the tip!

We used http://privategreecetours.com/ when we were in Athens. There were 4 of us and we had a very comfortable air conditioned car with a driver who took us all around Athens for 6 hours. The cost (I think) was 300 Euros, or 150 per couple. The driver met us at the port dock and was even aware that we had docked 3 hours earlier than originally planned! Because we did not have ship wifi, I was not able to check my email and learn that he was waiting for us. Nevertheless, he was still there waiting when we got off the ship! He took us to all the main sites and gave us plenty of time to view them. While driving he answered our questions and told us about the history of the buildings we were seeing. It was well worth the money and we were very pleased with this service. They were very flexible and altered the proposed itinerary to suit what we wanted. I strongly recommend this company.

Private Greece Tours is excellent. I’ve used them many times and will be again in Nov.

Thank you both for your input. We were in India and Dubai last Nov and the weather was warm enough for summer clothes. A few years back I was in the Med in Nov and it was cool. There’s just all those places in between that could be a little of both!

Kathleen

We will be sailing on the Nautica, Athens to Dubai, November 16 this year. I’ve researched the temps in each port during that time but I’m interested if anyone here has first hand experience with this itinerary in Nov. Primarily how hot/cold was Israel, Egypt (Valley of the Kings) and the temps sailing the Suez Canal and the Red Sea? Did you need cold weather jackets? I know the temps will rise the closer we get to Oman and Dubai. Thank you for any insight you might have.

Kathleen

We will be in Israel and Egypt in late November. I’ve looked at all the averages but I’m interested if anyone has had first hand experience during that time for Luxor, Valley of the Kings, and Jerusalem. Cold, hot? Any thoughts? Thank you!

We were just in the falklands. It is not a shopper’s paradise. Book a trip to see the amazing king penguins with Patrick watts

 

 

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We had a fabulous day with with Patrick! It wasn’t Christmas however....

Another vote for Private Greece Tours! We’ve used them before and will be using them again in Nov.

So - here's a new twist on this discussion.

We are currently on Insignia and in port at Pago Pago, Samoa.

Having done some research, I decided to purchase a "formal" navy blue men's "ie faitaga" (dress lava lava wrap).

I'll test the dress code this evening in Terrace and may push the envelope at Polo (along with a dress shirt) later this week. [emoji102][emoji102][emoji102]

Post a picture!

We did the Jerusalem/Bethlehem tour with Guided Tours Israel from Ashdod and had a wonderful time. I was also worried about having enough time in Jerusalem; but it was fine. I saw everything I wanted to. Jerusalem is a truly amazing town and I understand why everyone wants a piece of it. The town of Bethlehem isn't that great; but the Church of the Nativity was important for me to see.

 

From Haifa, we did the Nazareth/Galilee tour with GTI and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you are only spending one day in Israel, do not miss Jerusalem. You can read about our experiences on the two tours in our review on our website that is linked to in my signature. Israel is an amazing place that I am so glad I was finally able to visit. Enjoy your visit.

Thank you! I’ll take a look at your review.

I’ve been looking into tours out of Haifa for an upcoming Nov cruise. I’ve communicated with Guided Tours Israel and they have 2 tour options: Day1Jerusalem/Bethlehem, Day 2 Nazareth/Galilee. My question is have any of you taken these tours? Did you feel you had enough time in Jerusalem? Is Bethlehem another big city where you’re looking at sites replaced by a modern building and the same for Nazareth/Galilee? I’ve contacted Ika Schweitzer and though he’s acknowledged my message I’ve yet to hear what he can do and it’s been almost 2 weeks. Is it worth it to keep on bugging him? I’d love to spend more time in Jerusalem, maybe the Dead Sea and Masada. Any opinions out there?

Kathleen

Does anyone have a experience or comments on the BUS class lay flat seats on their 787-9

it is \ /\ / configuration

international flight

just wondering if they have a curtain or some partition to separate people ?

How are the beds for comfort ?

I know they are not hotel type beds but could you get a bit of sleep

I have never had the lay flat seats before

the ones on KLM were angled & I kept sliding down

 

thanks

We flew business class from Vancouver to Delhi last Nov on the 787-9. Wonderful experience. Yes, there was a curtain. Our flight attendants were very helpful and pleasant. The menu had some Indian choices that were excellent. And the flat seats were very comfortable. Ours was a day flight (13 hrs) but we both got in a really solid nap. Of course the nice little lunchtime cocktail helped a bit ;)

Hi Terry, we’ll be on this cruise with you, but while people have been sharing great things to do I thought I’d add my 2 cents. We were in Dubai last November picking up an Azamara cruise. The day before we left we took an early morning Falconry tour. It ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. We were picked up about 6am from our hotel and drove about an hour out into the desert and had a wonderful morning watching the falcon demonstrations. We even got to hold some meat and the falcons would swoop down and land on our arm to take the food. It was amazing!!

Luxury!

 

:')