scifimonkey

5x dining package was roughly the same price on board on our recent S class cruise and is limited in that you have to go to each of the restaurants. If you want to try them all then this is fine but if you have a favourite that you would like to eat in multiple times it may not be such a good deal compared to discounts you might get on the one you want. Having said that, we enjoyed all the restaurants and whilst we saw offers for Tuscan, Qsine and lunchtime at the Lawn club we never saw any offers for Murano which seemed full every night.

One of Barcelona, Istanbul, Rome or Venice would be my suggestion for start/finish points as all will support 3 to 4 days pre or post cruise stay with loads to see. If I had to choose one it would be Venice. There are many delightful smaller ports however, Rhodes, Mykonos, Valletta, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Santorini and others which are staging posts for great tours, Kusadasi (Ephesus), Livorno (Florence), Naples (Pompeii,Vesuvius, Capri, Sorrento), Messina or Catania ( Taormina, Etna and Syracuse). That still leaves Athens, Valencia, Monte Carlo, Gibraltar, Lisbon not to mention the British Isles and the Baltic cruises...............If the weather is good and you plan ahead almost all the ports that Celebrity use have something interesting to do and many will support repeat visits as you are naturally limited by the time you have. There is so much to see that the danger is that you will rush around trying to catch it all and come back needing a vacation. Plan some easy stroll and lunch days or a beach day into a port intensive itinerary or pick one key sight as a must see in each place and treat anything else as a bonus. You may find that those sea days that initially seemed like wasted sightseeing opportunities, are essential recharging points.

The most amazing thing about Europe is the variety crammed into such a relatively small space, different languages, currencies, histories and cultures almost every day. I would venture to say that especially with your husband being a first time visitor, whichever cruise you pick you will have a blast and the delight of a cruise is, that if you do have a not so good day then, there will be something entirely different coming along tomorrow.

Enjoy!

:)

Non of these beat the latest selfish act witnessed this year on an S class ship.

Apparently by pressing a combination of buttons it is possible to override the stop instructions from landings enabling the occupant to go direct to the next stop input in the car. Ever wondered why almost empty lifts go sailing past you? Could be the reason! Will not post the code as I was appalled and would not wish anyone else to start doing it. I would not think of doing it even though I now know.

Look, forgive me for being stupid...

I have booked our cruise with the 1,2,3 go promotion. I have selected pre paid gratuities and the classic drinks package. I think I got a good deal, certainly cheaper than Thomsons and about the same as P&O, our previous cruise lines, though we have cruised with Celebrity once before and enjoyed it.

I read on here about select dining. At this moment I have selected late dining in the MDR and I think it will probably suit us, but what is select dining? We are on the two week Med cruise next August. I intend to use speciality restaurants during the cruise but my inexperience with Celebrity is becoming obvious. Any help gratefully received!

 

 

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Select on Celebrity is just like freedom dining on P&O. The only difference is that celebrity have a lot more tables for two ( albeit set very close together) so if you are a couple there is much more chance of being able to sit as a two rather than have to join a large table without a long wait. If you prefer to join a large table just say so and you will seldom have any wait. You can also reserve a table for a specific time to avoid the chance of a wait. The earlier you reserve the better the chance of getting exactly the time you want. If you do have to wait you will be given a pager in the same way as with P&O freedom dining. On the whole it works well if you do not want to be held to a fixed dining time. it can be useful to have the flexibility to eat later particularly against an early sitting as X seem to stay later in port than P&O which can mean that tours which return close to sail away leave you little time to change for dinner.

Come join our roll call. There are a lot of private tours organised and there may well be spaces available on some of them.

I made the mistake of using a Travel Agency to make reservations for our family's cruise. I did get a great price, but now I'm stuck.

The reservations are tagged with Select Dining. We prefer just regular MDR option at 6pm. I don't know how to change it and every attempt to contact this crazy Travel Agent leads me to a less than helpful response.

Can someone offer me a suggestion as to how to change this dining, if possible?

Thanks!

It depends whether you like the regular dining because you like sitting at a larger table with others or whether it is just the regular early sitting time that you like. If it is just the timing then simply reserve a table at 6pm every night and leave the travel agent out of it. It is not the busiest time so you should not have much difficulty getting X to reserve you a table at 6.00pm every night.

Just joking

Well done Scotland no need to change the flag! Now let's have a vote on independence for England.

If P&O were proud enough of their UK heritage to brand their ships with the UK flag why would they change it unless the UK changed its flag. Frankly I cannot see why any government would wish to ditch hundreds of years of history and one of the most valuable brand logos in the world just because a small percentage of the population circa 2.5 million from nearly 70 did not share P&O's pride in being a part of the UK so why should or would P&O change their plans. I wonder if celebrity will repaint

their funnels and change their flags?

Ok I apologise for the snipe at Alex Salmond on a cruise board, it was uncalled for but soooo difficult to resist. The flag however should stay as it is and P&O should press on regardless. Hopefully by Friday the question will be irrelevant.

No reason why the UK flag cannot have blue in it just because the Scots choose to leave. If Scotland leaves the UK, leave the flag alone in all its incarnations including on the prow of P&O ships - its been the symbol and brand of our country for more years than Alex Salmond has brain cells, why should we be required to even consider changing it.

I hope that the Scots realize that they will be best served by staying within the UK but if not, then the rest of us should just carry on with as little change as possible.

Interestingly if they do choose to leave the UK the Scots may regret the fact that their flag has a big white cross on it. It may serve as a painful reminder of the voting mistake they made!;)

Why is everyone who seems to not like children on board obsessed as to whether there are enough climbing walls, surf pools, and great kids clubs to determine whether ships are suitable. Does no one take their kids on cruises to experience the varied and interesting destinations and to spend quality family time together in shows and restaurants and doing shared activities? There are always possible issues like the baby crying all night but I am sure that the parents more than anyone were trying their best to resolve that for their own benefit never mind anyone else's. If the sound attenuation is that bad,then you are equally likely to get stuck with a continually arguing couple or a particularly energetic couple next door which can be equally disturbing and is just the luck of the draw.

We have done 4 cruises with our son starting at age 10 and he is now 14. He has not spent more than a couple of sea days in the kids club on each cruise and last year never set foot in it as 10 out of 12 days were in ports. He enjoyed the kids clubs when he went and generally the staff are amazing but he would rather go in the pool or play deck games with his mum or play table tennis or a board game or watch a movie with me, or read or listen to music or play games on his iPod or take part in a quiz, more or less the same as most of the adults on board excepting possibly sun bathing which kids now seem to be taught at school is a bad thing to do. In 60 days of cruising he has not complained of boredom once.

I guess we must be a weird family, as if you were to believe many of the posts on this board most parents leave their kids to run riot and create chaos all day if they are not shackled in the kids club. This is not our experience and generally we have found the children on celebrity, almost without exception, to be particularly courteous and well behaved. I wish I could say the same for the adults who all too often provide the most effective teaching tool possible as how not to behave in public. My son had no idea what a chav was until he went on a cruise!

People without kids do have options! For most of the year the kids are in school leaving plenty of cruises where there will be very few children and where it would be extremely easy to avoid them. There are also cruise lines that have adult only ships if you want to be absolutely certain of having a child free vacation. X is a very good family line and until such time as my son tells us he is bored with cruising we will be making the most of holidays on celebrity ships which seem to work really well for all of us as a family holiday.

This time last year on silhouette we docked and x put on a transfer bus. The distance was not far to walk into town but there did not seem to be any footpath so I am not sure how safe it was to walk.

The only place I have found which might dictate whether we had a port or starboard cabin is Venice and that would now only be if we were travelling on a small ship as the bigger ships are banned from the Giudecca canal. if you are on a small ship and you are leaving from Venice get a port side cabin and if you are ending your trip in Venice get a starboard side cabin. It really is worth it!

We were in 1114, (next door) on Silhouette last year and never had any problems with noise from the atrium in the cabin. Generally the library is pretty quiet and the noise from the atrium , which did penetrate obtrusively to the library in the evening due to the band playing in the atrium, was not noticeable in the cabin . Noise from the Atrium into the Library was not a regular problem during the day only in the evening. The only problem you may have is that the door to 1112 is right opposite the entrance to the corridor and therefore when you open the suite door, people entering the corridor at that moment may have a view straight into the suite. This may or may not concern you?

Plenty of people up for a mystery tour it would seem as the 4th of October Holy Land (maybe) cruise is now more or less sold out!:)

Its worth considering a ships tour in the morning assuming there is one which goes somewhere you want to see. They tender you to the main ferry terminal rather than the bottom of the cable car in order to join the buses so there is no wasted time waiting to leave the ship and the tours almost always return you to Fira bus station from where you can either walk into the town and explore Fira or get a Bus or Taxi to Oia .

Having two sets of tenders to different locations in itself tends to slow down the tendering process for the first few hours and the wait for the cable car up can be a long one especially if there is more than one large ship in port.

There is not much that can be done about the queues for the cable car back down but at least if you decide to walk and brave the donkey poo it is down hill. Not sure if you can get a boat back from Oia to the Fira dock (Maybe someone else could confirm) but if that were possible then you might be able to avoid the cable car both ways.

Great port to DIY. Plenty to see in Valetta itself in a day if you do not want to take an excursion and easily walkable as long as you do not have walking difficulties. There is quite a level change between the dock and the city but there is a public lift or you could get a taxi up if it looks too challenging.

Very little difference IMHO since the tapas bar was removed from Ventura. Its more or less a matter of décor rather than substance with the sole exception of the sliding roof. I would therefore suggest that Ventura (with the roof) would be the best choice if the weather was potentially iffy and Azura if it was likely to be sunshine all the way.

They are both great ships and we have had really good experiences on both.

It is really not long since the Concordia and with the remains of that ship only recently being removed from the sea bed to Genoa it is difficult to believe that people would not take the muster drill seriously. :confused: of course a sinking is an unlikely event but whilst the risks are low, the impact can be catastrophic so seems like a small imposition to spend 1/2 hour or so away from the bar, or unpacking your cases when it might just save your life.

Forgive my ignorance but is DJ a tux? LOL. Just curious. :-)

Correct, in UK it's a Dinner Jacket ( DJ). Just another glitch in our supposedly common language.

Hi, my husband and I are due on Sillhouette in September sailing from Rome. A previous poster stated that there were very few men in DJ's on formal nights. As he prefers to blend in with the crowd rather than stand out, would I be better packing a normal suit

Plenty of DJ's on Rome cruise on Silhouette last October but it seems from reading posts on CC to vary cruise to cruise. Possibly, and this is an impression not a piece of scientific analysis, there seem to be more reports of formal wear being popular on Med cruises than Caribbean ones. If your husband is uncomfortable in a DJ and only wears it to fit in then go with the suit but I am sure there will be plenty enough others in DJ's that he will not stand out if you go that way.

Ship time has always been adjusted to local port time on cruises that I have been on. It would be confusing otherwise particularly with sailing times which could be unfortunate if you got it wrong. The time zone changes are usually well publicised and at the least made fairly prominent in the daily activity sheets received each evening.

not pre-prepared, there is a website i use to find out what ships are in which ports when to help me find itineraries that involve ports i want to visit, or see how many ships and people may be in a port on any given day to see if i think the ports will be crowded or not. So i just checked there for the list of cruises visiting ashdod on october and recapped here.

tt?

Can you predict if missiles will be firing at cruise ships those particular Days Celebrity will be on port? Seems to me no cruise ships have been fired on since the incident reported, the tensions in there region remain as they have for the last 2000 years, and as noted, all other cruise lines scheduled to call those ports on october:

1. Costa Pacifica
   
2. Thomson Celebration
   
3. Thomson Spirit
   
4. Ocean Princess
   
5. Seabourn Odyssey
   
6. HAL ms Rotterdam
   
7. HAL ms Prinsendam
   
8. TUI Mein Schiff2
   
9. Azamara Quest
   
10. Celebrity Sillouhette
    
11. Celebrity Constellation
    
12. Silversea Silver Spirit
    
13. Silversea Silver Wind
    
14. Hapag Lloyd ms Europa 2
    

 

are all still scheduled to port in Ashdod in October with no publicized contingency plans. Not sure why X should be expected to do something that is not customary, especially when many other lines aren't doing anything yet either. Maybe they can spend 1 day at 1 of the ports, maybe it's as scheduled, maybe they are keeping the port calls, and as they approach the port, they have no choice but turn around and do a port day. Too many variables to consider, so "stay the course" unless something requires a change, then manage that change at the time it is needed, if it is needed.

 

 

 

As noted I am on a cruise scheduled to call in Ashdod myself. I don't find it weak at all. I find it to be part of the cruising custom and experience, wether i like it or not, it is the way things are done.

 

Anyone concerned about missing the ports or with strong opinions on optional ports, needs to wait until the conflict n the region ends some time int he next 2000 years.

 

 

 

I am trying to help CC people letting them know the policy is changes happen last minute, complaining here isn't gonna change that, and part of the cruising experience is that ports change last minute often and for many reasons, and are not generally reported far in advance to allow for the option of maintaining the initially publicized itinerary.

 

I try to inject facts and reason, where many try instead to inject rhetoric and hyperbole.

 

 

As to Dubai/Jamaica, I have gay friends living in Dubai (in fact the primary reason I chose this itinerary, so I could visit them, the cruise being a nice perk) I keep in touch with. Several years ago the government imposed a basic don't ask don't tell policy after a prince there had a gay lover killed that made things explode there. So it's tolerated now, and there are gay bars even. But I do thank you for your concern and trying to help out the CC community with those comments. :rolleyes:

Nice shot though that list must have been pre prepared? and glad that things have improved in Dubai since I was last there.

I am hanging in and trusting in Celebrity to deliver the current itinerary if they can and a decent alternative if they cannot. As I have said elsewhere i have always been prepared to go with the balance of probability and it would appear from those who have taken the trouble to share their experience of similar situations in the region that decent alternative ports have always been substituted. If that happens here then I will have no complaints. Hopefully for all of the passengers, Celebrity and even more importantly the Israelies and Palestinians the trouble will subside and we will be able to enjoy the planned ports!