MrsBBuffalo

Thank you!  So helpful!

Seany, if you are still watching this great thread, may I ask what they were doing about providing restroom access for the people standing outside the airport waiting for hours??

1 hour ago, Seany527 said:

This morning disembarkation was extremely easy and efficient. SXM will not let you into the airport until it’s closer to your departure time. The line outside was endless, with minimal seats, so I highly recommend waiting on the ship. I wish I had. 
 

Our boarding time is 12:15 and they allowed us to enter at 10:15.  

Wow!  We don't leave until almost 3 pm.  How long would they have let you remain on the ship??  We certainly don't want to stand outside for  4-5 hours!

I wonder if we will have any extra leniency re disembarking on the June 26 sailing since no pax will be boarding that day?  They will be getting on the Summit.

SeaNY have you seen any children under 16 yet?  Are they making them wear masks all over the ship?

Thank you!  Thank you!  We are a multi-generational family of 8 that will be sailing on Millie in 3 weeks and your posts are giving us peace of mind and allowing us to finally get excited about this cruise and traveling together after 15 months.  The photos are a huge help, and no, you are not writing too much.  We have stressed over our COVID testing process and timing so much, but our current plans should be fine according to your experience.

I saw the staff wearing masks.  Do pax have to wear masks?  Unvaccinated children?

We will keep following and will appreciate more info about the ship and ports, BUT not at the expense of your fun and enjoyment, okay?  Bless you!

Loving your posts! Thanks for making the time. Glad you are having so much fun! Did you get to follow all your plans in Labadee?

Thanks for all your great descriptions and photos! We are both enjoying them. ;)

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip each day. We have enjoyed Oasis but only from a Balcony and MDR point of view. We hope to do a dining package on a future RCCL cruise so I will enjoy your specialty dining reviews.

Thank you so much for this post! We are planning a venture to the South Pacific in 2020 and really needed help with ports to decide which cruise to choose so this is great!

I know the ship is chartered THIS week, but no idea about next week.

Unless there has been an outbreak and our ship will have to undergo deep cleaning before we can board?

Thank you for this wonderful review! We just got back from a week on Oasis with the family and we had a wonderful time. All your tips and photos were so helpful.

I just wanted to say that hunting for the Small Wonders all over the ship turned out to be a highlight of the Sea Days for our 5 and 9 yr. olds, so be sure to look for them. You can get a list of where they all are from Guest Services.

Thank you so much for this wonderful tour of the Oasis of the Seas. We board in a few weeks and I was a little nervous because she is so big and has so much to offer, but your posts have helped so much. I think I will actually feel like I am returning instead of boarding for the first time.

We would need to go to Ventura. Thanks for the list. I get Hubby on it! ;)

We will visit SB this fall on a Pacific Coastal and hope to visit with family inland. They have two small children, so we will not know until just before we sail if they will choose to drive to SB to see us, or we will need to rent a car to go to them. So we plan to reserve a rental car just in case.

SBAnt, if you are still following this thread, what are the closest current rental locations to the tender drop-off? And the best way to get there.

Thank you!

We'd love an update on 2015 internet prices/packages on the Brilliance for a longer cruise. We are booked for 12 nights in a few months.

And if you have current info, we are Diamond members and would like to know the Diamond onboard "coupon" credits for internet AND laundry. That will be helpful for packing.

Thanks so much! My parents are older and I need to stay in touch.

We will be in Stockholm from 8 am to 5 pm on Sunday June 7, 2015, docking at 167 Stadsgarden. We would like to take the City Hall tour, and visit the Vasa Museum and Skansen Villages.

We plan to purchase a Stockholm Card. What is your recommendation of the best order to visit these places? And what public transportation routes will be most efficient for our time from the Stadsgarden area? Will we have any issues with closings on a Sunday?

We are 3 active adults around age 60, experienced travelers but we do not speak or read Swedish. Thanks in advance for your advice and all your great comments on this and other threads.

Karen, I forgot to ask if you could use it at any of the train machines, like in Copenhagen or London for example? We plan to travel that way in several ports.

Thanks!

Thank you Karen! You have answered all the questions we need. BofA is our regular bank, but we currently have no credit cards with them. We are headed to the Baltic next year, so I believe we will be getting this and we will be sure to get the right one.

Happy Holidays to you too!

Beth

Karen, would you come back and let us know how the BofA chip and pin card worked for you?

Thank you!

We will be in Copenhagen on June 2, 2015, next year from 7 am to 4 pm docking at Langelinie (sp?) pier. It will be our first visit.

I am so interested in all the good reviews I read about Frederiksborg Slot (Castle) and we are very comfortable taking your public transportation to visit. I believe we could tour there and still have time for a canal tour when we returned to Copenhagen town.

My question is this: Should we try to do this or would it be advisable to remain in town for our 9 hours? If we stay in town, what are the Must See spots?

Thank you for answering this for me as I'm sure you have answered it before, but this thread is just too big to read it all.

I agree that Celebrity should at least inform us of groups, say over 50 in number, on a sailing. We were on a Carribean cruise last fall with 3 very large wedding groups and a social group. Our dining table ended up in the middle of one of the wedding groups and our waiters were very distracted trying to deal with them as they wandered in at all times. And the special dining room was fully booked 4 of 7 nights by the wedding groups.

But the biggest issue for us was that the Activity Director and the Loyalty Person were completely tied up with the groups' special events. We got no Connections Party, almost no onboard activities, and areas and rooms would be closed to the general cruise pax.

So I'd have to say that yes, large groups do affect other non-group cruisers.

Karen, what did it say?

And that was TravelPeon's suggestion. He/she was thanking me for an earlier post.

http://www.thepreismans.com/med_grand_princ.htm

http://pandbtraveladventures.blogspot.com/2013/10/3-week-long-european-adventure-fall-2013.html

Both of these trip reports include Athens and they each arranged for a Trip Advisor recommended taxi driver ahead of time. He was just a driver, not a guide, but I get the impression they were given a lot of information as he drove. One mentions E100 for a party of 4 for a 5 hour tour. Both tours seem very similar, but perhaps they would be willing to customize. They did begin nice and early.

Caution to anyone considering using the Athens Metro - pickpocketing - purse snatching and other minor crime is very prevalent. This will be our third trip to Athens and we will not step foot in the Metro. We are usually a lot more daring than we should be wherever we travel but the Athens Metro is just a problem looking for a victim and not worth the risk. For cost of a cab ride or a tour the Varvakios Agorais one of our favorite shopping spots and we will go there - just not on the Metro.

Fun33, this is disturbing. Did this happen to you or others in your party?

I believe you are on our cruise, so we can continue this discussion there if you like. Of course we don't want to save a few euro just to risk a criminal incident!

Thank you MeHeartCruising. We had planned to do exactly as you describe, but read two very good reviews where the travelers used pre-arranged and recommended taxis to excellent effect, so then we wondered if that was better for our first visit.

We did just look up the bus schedules and have realized we will be in Athens on a Sunday as well and there are not nearly as many buses running on a Sunday. I'm headed over to our CC thread to post that.