Cruise No More Fun!

[cruz4us2]

:confused: I'm afraid all the confusion with flight arragements,money conversion and the ta problem, we wounder if it's worth it? We are going to Alaska in May on the Summitt. Our 1st curise, we have CC room, but it sounds like it's a real pain to deal w/x! We were looking for something fun and different. What ever happened to a relaxing cruise we used to hear about? HELP ME OUT CURISER'S should I cancell while I have time or give it a chance?

[gracecarmo]

What? Cancel....NO. Any type of vacation (land or sea) you have air arrangments, hotel problems, some money conversion issues, etc.

A cruise is IMO the best value and most restful vacation you can have. Pre planning is also helpful!

Go on your cruise and enjoy....btw, we loved our cruise on the Summit and also Alaska.

[Karynanne]

The issues you read on this board represent only a small minority of people that cruise Celebrity...and of those, not everyone has TA problems, travel problems, embarkation/debarkation, cabin and anything else that can go wrong.

 

Go on your cruise, enjoy everything, and put yourself in the mind-set that your upcoming vacation will be a fantastic experience!

 

Karyn

[itsanita]

We went to Alaska on the Summit and had a great time!

 

I look at all the pre planning as just part of "the fun" of going on holiday! My husband thinks I probably get almost as much fun out of planning our trips as the actual trip! These boards give such great advise and information that by the time we go, its a breeze.

 

And cruises are so relaxing, no packing and unpacking, dealing with checking in and out, finding a place to eat, etc. So I sure do hope you stick with it, as I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

[vaccardi]

Even if it takes a little effort now, you will forget it once on the ship. Alaska is a once in a lifetime experience (unless you can get away with more times.) Sorry about your problems. I fortunatley have always been lucky, or been able to overlook the problems for the goal.

[bububr]

Maybe I can help.....I cruise X a lot, although September will be my first Alaskan cruise and third time on the Mercury.

 

Start with a basic concern. 1. Flights 2. Money conversion 3. TA

 

By CC room do you mean Conciege class?

 

List your concerns and their details and we will try to help as much as possible.

 

And NO you should not cancel, However, YES you should stop worrying and relax a bit.

 

Dave:eek:

[STUR]

:confused: I'm afraid all the confusion with flight arragements,money conversion and the ta problem, we wounder if it's worth it? We are going to Alaska in May on the Summitt. Our 1st curise, we have CC room, but it sounds like it's a real pain to deal w/x! We were looking for something fun and different. What ever happened to a relaxing cruise we used to hear about? HELP ME OUT CURISER'S should I cancell while I have time or give it a chance?

DO NOT CANCELL YOUR CRUISE

 

What ever you have read It's up to you what you wont the cruise to everything 100% ok It is the best value for the $ Food Lodging Entertainment

Everything

 

When you have other Cruises to Compair to Some things or Great and some not so great

 

Injoy your Cruise

 

We are goinging on Celebrity Mercury next year out of SanDiego to Mexican Riviera 11Night This is the first time to pick Celebrity We understand they are a little more up scale not a party boat little more Formel

 

STUR DAYTON,OHIO

[cruising with marti]

Wow, cancel your cruise to Alaska? Don't it!!!!

 

We sailed twice last year to Alaska, both on the Summit, May and Sept.

 

And of all our cruises (16) We probably enjoyed Alaska and the Summit the Best.

 

Phil

[masterbaker]

I'm trying to remember back to our first cruise and recall feeling overwelmed with the details in the planning stages. I now look forward to all the planning of details because NOW I KNOW that once i'm aboard I have everything planned and all I have to do is relax and enjoy the wonderful vacation ahead. I was really not all that interested in an Alaska cruise but agreed to go last year when DH made it clear that he REALLY wanted to cruise Alaska. I am SO glad he insisted, it was a wonderful cruise and really had the best scenery of ANY cruise we have taken. I want to go back again soon. I know there are lots of decisions to make regarding travel arrangements, tours, ect. but it is really worth it.

[atb]

The pre-cruise planning keeps me in "cruise mode" year round.

Today I was looking at X shore excursions. I am also looking at private excursions that are offered on our "roll call."

The pre-planning is part of the cruise - and when we get to the airport for our flight - there is nothing left to do but ENJOY.:D

Cancel a cruise - NEVER - :eek:

[cruz4us2]

:) Thanks for your imput...will be needing you for all our ?? sure glad your willing to help! We've already mad some minor mistakes but nothing we can't fix!Will be writing for help soon...

[Fredr]

hello,

 

I agree with the other respondents that you should not cancel your cruise and especially a cruise to Alaska. Please calm down and relax! Remember the first rule of cruising...you can do as little as you want or as much. The second rule is that you do not have to see everything all at once and with this is...there is much in Alaska that you can see and do for very little money. The third rule stolen from Abe Lincoln is you cannot possibly please everyone all the time and this is especially true about cruising. If you and /or your husband or friends or whomever are very demanding and easily rattled or easily dissatified then go on the cruise and make the best of it. However, there is a very strong possibilty that you will really enjoy cruising and so will they.

 

Ask any questions however great or small or trivial and I will gladly answer your questions.

 

Fred

[Drew B]

We are going to Alaska in May on the Summitt. Our 1st curise,

 

 

Which sailing? I'm going on the 13-night out of Los Angeles on May 7th. It's not my FIRST cruise, but it is only my third and by far my longest. It is also my first time on Celebrity. I hope you're on my cruise. We can be "newbies" together...

[tupper10]

We sailed last year on the Summit to Alaska late August to avoid the mosquitos. We had no trouble at all boarding or disembarking the ship. With CC class you get priority so it isn't a problem at all. In fact even though the book tells you a time to board we went early and got right on the ship. We had the most wonderful staff; in the dining room as well as in our CC stateroom. You have to know that in Alaska you are touring a rain forest so be prepared for rain - bring an umbrella and rain gear. Also in July be prepared for mosquitos they don't call them the state bird of Alaska for nothing. In late August the whales are migrating right where the ship goes so... we saw an entire pod of whales migrating right outside our veranda for about 45 minutes - it was incredible. We saw a huge double rainbow - we've never ever seen anything like this before and for the Hubbard Glacier we were up and out early on a beautiful sunny day and it was calving all the day. Make sure you ask the staff the night before when the ship will be at the glacier since we arrived earlier then the newsletter told us, some people missed it a part of it because they weren't up and on deck. We did the flight seeing over Glacier Bay which was well worth it and our one huge splurge. We've been on a land tour to Alaska before, but if you haven't, please go see Denali it is a once in a lifetime experience. Also, if you have time take the one day trip in Seward it is the largest national park (water) in the world and you will see sea lions, dolphins, whales, orka etc etc. Have fun and enjoy yourselves.

[Cruise or Lose!]

Go go go go go go go go go go GO!

 

I cannot say this strongly enough. Once you get on the ship you will feel like you are in heaven. There is no other experience that I've ever had that can match the feeling of standing with drink in hand, hearing the ship's band play as we sail away to begin our itinerary. It only gets better from there.

[cruz4us2]

hello,

 

I agree with the other respondents that you should not cancel your cruise and especially a cruise to Alaska. Please calm down and relax! Remember the first rule of cruising...you can do as little as you want or as much. The second rule is that you do not have to see everything all at once and with this is...there is much in Alaska that you can see and do for very little money. The third rule stolen from Abe Lincoln is you cannot possibly please everyone all the time and this is especially true about cruising. If you and /or your husband or friends or whomever are very demanding and easily rattled or easily dissatified then go on the cruise and make the best of it. However, there is a very strong possibilty that you will really enjoy cruising and so will they.

 

Ask any questions however great or small or trivial and I will gladly answer your questions.

 

Fred

Hi Fredr...Thanks for the offer I just may take you up on that!

[fleckle]

We took our first cruise to Alaska many years ago, booking the cruise spontaneously at the last minute when we saw it advertised as a super terrific closeout deal for a 12 night cruise. It never occurred to us to feel the slightest bit overwhelmed with the details of the planning stages because there was no time to feel overwhelmed and there was very little planning.

 

It was back in the days before everyone used the Internet. We booked the cruise over the phone on a credit card. They airmailed the cruise documents to us by express mail (or whatever it was called at the time). We stopped by a bookstore to pick up several books about Alaska, phoned the airlines to make flight arrangements, phoned a hotel to reserve a room for the night before the cruise, and dropped off a card at our local post office to stop the mail. Then we packed our suitcases, and off we went.

 

We had an absolutely wonderful cruise and decided that we definitely wanted to go back to Alaska again. We learned a lot about the ports and the various tours by reading the books, attending the onboard lectures, and talking to people on the ship who had been there before, asking them lots of questions.

 

Since there was no Cruise Critic message board back in those days, we were unaware of the existence of all those potential problems, so we never worried about them and we never encountered them. To this day, that cruise remains one of the best vacations we ever had, and we have had a lot of great ones through the years, some pre-planned in detail, and others of the get-up-and-go spontaneous kind.

 

A board such as this provides a wonderful, easy way to pick up a lot of very good information, but it can also start you needlessly worrying yourself sick over potential problems that in all likelihood will never occur. In a way it is almost like sitting and reading the cautions on the package insert for a new prescription medication, obsessing about all the things that could possibly go wrong.

 

As everyone is trying to assure you, relax and stop worrying about every little detail. The Summit is a wonderful ship. You will be pampered and treated like royalty. The Alaska scenery is spectacular. Just go and enjoy it all.

[CruiseFever]

:confused: I'm afraid all the confusion with flight arragements,money conversion and the ta problem, we wounder if it's worth it? We are going to Alaska in May on the Summitt. Our 1st curise, we have CC room, but it sounds like it's a real pain to deal w/x! We were looking for something fun and different. What ever happened to a relaxing cruise we used to hear about? HELP ME OUT CURISER'S should I cancell while I have time or give it a chance?

 

Maybe

 

You need to simmer down or you'll ruin your cruise without the help of anybody else

 

Can you do that?

 

I bet you can

 

You took the first step towards a wonderful cruise and hopeless addiction by coming here and asking about this. I remember the apprehension I had before our first cruise. Listen to how paranoid I was that I would NOT like cruising. I booked a balcony cabin because I (secretly) wanted us to have a place to escape to if, in fact, it was all boring old people and we felt totally out of place.

 

The exact opposite turned out to be true. The only regret we had was that we'd not booked a longer cruise. In time, that came to be two regrets we had about that first cruise. The other was that we'd not had a place like Cruise Critic to learn valuable tips from, to gain from nothing more than reading of the voyages of others who'd sailed before us.

 

I still have two country club casual outfits from Nautica and Members Only that I will never wear but HAD to have for our first cruise so I would fit in with the jet setting ocean liner crowd.

 

Simmer down, read, learn, relax...you'll have a grand time!

[npb]

Thousands of people cruise Celebrity every week, don't worry about the few complaints. Just remember that they are cooking for many. With that in mind, they do a fabulous job. Was it better 10 years ago? Yes, but we have found that all the affordable cruise lines have cut things from 10 years ago. We have tried Princess and HAL but always come back to Celebrity.

 

Celebrity has cut mostly on food presentation --- no more veggies tied with green onion tops, no more potato cups with potao balls etc

[Texed]

 

Celebrity has cut mostly on food presentation --- no more veggies tied with green onion tops, no more potato cups with potao balls etc

 

We had both on our last cruise on Summit.:)

[Susan-M]

should I cancell while I have time or give it a chance?

 

I think you should give it a chance but try to go with a positive attitude, because if you go with negative feelings, anxiety and confusion ... it will be doomed from the start and that's just too much money to spend on a doomed vacation;)

Read the posts from the Alaska Board, sign on to your Roll Call, and get a book on cruising in Alaska so that you will have an idea of what to expect. (Your local library should have some good books on this topic.) Look over the excursion options so that you'll know ahead of time (bet yet, book ahead of time) the excursions that you want to do.

 

The scenery is spectacular and if you have a CC balcony cabin....you are going to love it!

[bonbon663]

I'm glad to read this thread. I'm also going on my first cruise to Alaska this summer. I'm very apprehensive about everything from my clothes, to the food, to excursions, to seasickness. I can't begin to list all the stuff that I fret about.

 

I wouldn't think of cancelling though. I consider it an adventure. I want to thank all the people with your advice. I'll be asking a lot of questions.

[MarkandStacie]

but it is not the most relaxing. If you want relaxation, being taken care of, and THE best value for your dollar, I'd go to a very nice all-inclusive resort.

 

Like I said, I love cruising. Considering the origanal point however, other things must be taken into account. The embarkation/debarkation, set stop times in ports, dinner and other event times do make it not quite as relaxing as other vacations I've had. Also, AI's come with no bar bill!

 

Now that I've said that, ARE YOU CRAZY? Don't cancel your first cruise, go and see Alaska as only you can from a ship!

[CruiseQueen13]

Do it - cruising is the way to go - fun, relaxing, all around wonderful!!!