Gillybeanie

I will send it right away to your email address. It really is easy and fun.

Hi Ann' date='

I have been 'nominated' to organise my first ever slot pull. If it is not too much trouble, can you please email me your spreadsheet and instructions? Thanks in advance. [email']gillianparsons@btopenworld.com[/email]

Gillian x

Also, if you check your roll call there may be people,who have booked shared tours that are less strenuous. I'd love to hear what you choose. I'm sure you'll find plenty as there are just so many offerings.

Many thanks for all the info, much appreciated. The roll call on here is TINY!! Only seem to be around 10 people on it, which is disappointing, as the last time I cruised there were over 200 people. Might be forced into taking the ships tours unless more people join the roll call last minute.

Gillian x

I am doing this cruise in August with my 77 year old Mother who is waiting for a hip replacement operation. She can walk reasonably ok for short-ish distances, but then she is in lot of pain.

I was wondering how suitable you think the ships excursions would be for her? Is there a lot of walking involved in them all? I am considering hiring a folding wheelchair for her but wouldn't mind your opinion of how easy it would be for me to push her on these trips? Bearing in mind the August heat, and I have no idea if there will be steep and uneven ground involved? Any insight you can give me would be really appreciated? Thanks.

Gillian x

Gillian,

I am still interested in how this "speedy departure" issue worked out for you?

Apologies for not replying to this sooner, but unfortunately my Dad became seriously unwell whilst I was away and sadly he died on Monday of this week.

Remarkably, all my travel arrangements went perfectly! On the outbound journey, despite taking off slightly late, the flight landed 15 mins ahead of schedule, my driver was waiting for me and the transfer to the Port only took around half the time that I was quoted. I was onboard about 4 hours prior to the ship departing.

On the return journey, the ship docked at 5am. I was unsure how long it would take to disembark and find my luggage etc so I asked to disembark at 6.30am (driver was picking me up at 7.15am). I asked about keeping my luggage with me and self-disembarking but Guest Services assured me that there was no need and recommended putting the luggage out the night before for collection.

They were absolutely right, the disembarkation process went like a dream and I literally walked off the ship, straight to my luggage which was easy to spot in amongst the other cases belonging to people with the same disembarkation time/number. There was no hanging about or delays and I was standing at the side of the ship waiting for my driver to arrive (as we were off far too early really for the 7.15am pick up). Interestingly, I was not even remotely near the first group to disembark, there were around 34 groups disembarking before me so it must have been a very slick operation after docking to facilitate this.

I'd have no hesitation to do this again with Celebrity, can't speak for other cruise lines obviously!

Gillian x

Gillybeanie, I agree with you. The ship offers you and your son more than a land resort would.

 

Make sure you put all your home address info inside your luggage, as well as on the outside tags. Keep everything important or worth money in your day-pack that stays with you. As for the big luggage, do your best. If it gets left behind, it will probably catch up to you later - who wants to steal a suitcase full of dirty clothes?

 

Have a great vacation!

Thanks!! :)

Gillian x

By The Way, Catherine and I traveled from Edinboro,PA USA to meet our friends in Edinburgh, Scotland a few weeks ago.

Not much room for luggage in their two Lotus :D

Picked us up at the cruise pier in Rosyth

not even room for a baby seat!

Now that's arriving in style!! My son Cameron is sat beside me here looking at a book but he spotted the cars and shouted "I like that car Mummy!!" :D

Gillian x

Gillian,

ashore by 6:30am...That's great ! Soooo... did you happen to ask HIM the original question about luggage;

leaving it outside your cabin for pick-up or, strapping it to your back?;)

 

and taking a 3 year old... As a 63 year old, I would be too selfish; would not do it.

I am jealous of your youth and energy and commitment :eek:

What a good mother you are !

I wish you the best and looking forward to reading about your saga!

Michael

 

By The Way, Catherine and I traveled from Edinboro,PA USA to meet our friends in Edinburgh, Scotland a few months ago.

Yes, I asked him about the luggage and he said I should go to Guest Services desk the night before and they would advise me what they would prefer I did to expedite my speedy departure. He did mention though that if they advise me to keep my luggage with me, I will probably have to manage it off the ship by myself because the staff have a very tight turnaround time before the ship departs for it's next sailing.

I love Edinburgh, it's only about 30 mins from my house. Great place to go for a day out and although it's right on my doorstep, there are still parts of it I've never visited! Did you tour round outside Edinburgh at all?

Gillian x

If you may, please write later and let us know how this works for you.

Sorry, but I guess my main thought right now is why you would cruise with a three year old? ( It's a rhetorical question; you don't have to answer)

 

BTW my wife and I will be on a cruise (NCL Jade) in April,2014 ,

coming to and leaving from FCO (Rome)

Our return flight leaves FCO at 12:55PM .

It' a reasonable time, considering we are taking the ship shuttle along with others with same/similar flights and hopefully they do not screw it up.:)

We'll be leaving our luggage outside the cabin.

Wishing You the Best,

Michael

I will gladly let you know how we get on. I spoke to Celebrity's Customer Services about the tight schedule and they seem very relaxed about it. The guy I spoke to said that as long as I let them know the night before, they will make sure I'm one of the first off the ship and they could have me ashore by around 6.30am :D

As for asking why would I cruise with a 3 year old? Why would I not??

I'm a single parent (through no choice of my own), my son comes everywhere with me, he comes to work with me and I certainly wouldn't swan off on holiday without him. I have certainly never cruised before but I have friends/relatives who have cruised for years, some with children. The facilities for children on the ship we are going on far outweighs anything I've ever seen at any beach type holiday which usually is only a swimming pool and a mini disco of an evening and that is it!! It can be really hard to keep a young child amused given you can't exactly take a lot of toys/books etc because of luggage restrictions on flights on normal holidays. Yet on a cruise, they have toys you can borrow to use in your cabin, toys in their dedicated child care facilities etc, plus everything you would find in a hotel and more!! Loads of activities for families with children every day. There are no babysitting facilities usually on resort based holidays either, and as my son is only 3, he's usually in bed by 7pm. Yet there are several options open to me on the ship whereby he can either sleep in a dedicated 'nursery' type place until 1am, or have a specific babysitter in our cabin. This will allow me time to relax, socialise and enjoy a bit of 'me' time, safe in the knowledge that my son is being looked after by qualified child care professionals who are disclosure checked for criminal backgrounds. As he will be sound asleep during this time anyway (he sleeps 14 hours a night straight) this will have no impact on him whatsoever. As well as all the daytime activities geared towards families, my son will also get to visit some lovely beaches in several different locations, and enjoy some of the evening entertainment (which will be far more interesting than a mini disco) on the odd night if I let him stay up a bit later and he will also get to have fun with other children of a similar age in the children's areas.

If I did a run of the mill holiday with him, he would be on the same beach every day or at the pool, with not much else to do. He's not interested in traipsing round shops or sight seeing, and in the evening my options would be to sit and read a book every night from 7pm onwards while he sleeps, isolated and alone in our hotel bedroom. So it seems a no brainer to me really!!

What is it that concerns you about me taking a 3 year old on a cruise?

Gillian x

Rome(Port of Civitavecchia) to Rome Airport (FCO)

hmmm... another issue of time.

READ http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=43044

One thing going in my favour is that it's not FCO airport, it's the quieter Ciampino. The majority of flights as far as I can see all go to FCO so hopefully there will not be any delay at check in/security etc.

That article has cheered me up slightly though, they were off an hour or so after docking so God willing I should easily be off by 7.15am if the ship docks at 5am. Or is it rare to get off so quickly after docking? I am ballsy enough to force my way through with my luggage if need be! I'd much rather have people tutting and bitching and still make my flight than politely queue up and then have a 2 day nightmare with a 3 year old to get home :o

I wish you the best.

I assume you booked the flights and cruise on your own?

Maybe you CAN get help; contact the Cruise Line.

 

At least your post may be of help, warning other First Time Cruisers of this situation.

I hate stressing.

Thanks. I booked the cruise through Vacations to Go website but they wouldn't deal with the flights so I had to book them independently. There is only one airline that does direct flights from Rome to Scotland, and it's one flight a day in the morning, so I had very little choice. If I had flown via London and got connecting flights the travel time would be approx 17/18 hours as opposed to 3/4 hours and the fare was more than double. It seemed a no brainer booking the flights I did!! :eek:

Just bite the bullet and reserve the flight for the next day. If you try to get off for that flight and miss it, then you will have to buy tix for another flight, and most likely you won't get the same price as if you would buy in advance.

 

We did something similar about 11 years ago. My dad told my sis to book the flights. She booked the flights from LAX to FLL to arrive the day before the cruise left (which is what you usually should do). My dad couldn't get off work to leave that night so we had to take a red eye. Our tix were non refundable so we had to bite the bullet. Back then the tix were more than $200 per, and after a $100 change fee, I still have $100+ to go towards some other fare.

 

If the fare you paid more than $100? If so you could call and ask if you can use some of that to go towards the new tix.

The flights were about £350, which is roughly $550 ish. The biggest problem is there are NO flights to Scotland on the Saturday without having to fly to the likes of Amsterdam and then get connecting flights. That could result in a whole day spent travelling which will be an utter nightmare trying to amuse a 3 year old and manoeuvre all that luggage on and off planes by myself. I so wish I had known about this website before I booked!! :(

[/b][/size]

It's a shame you NOW have to worry !

How did you get in to this situation ?

Lack of knowledge of cruising, I wrongly assumed if the boat docked at 4.30am we would be off the ship by around 5am ish. I had no reason to believe it wouldn't be like just getting off a plane :confused:

No. That's the idea of self-disembarkation. The staff are otherwise working that very busy morning, sorry. I do hope you have a Plan B because like the others, I do not think you will make this flight. :(

Ah well, at least I won't have my boss shouting at me for being late back from holiday as I work for myself!! It's just not something I remotely considered never having cruised before. The original schedule I saw had the boat docking at 4.30am so there was no reason for me to think we wouldn't make a flight at 11.05am when we had priority disembarkation. For people who have never cruised before, nobody tells you any of this stuff and I only discovered this website after the cruise and flights were all booked and paid for :rolleyes:

I'm not going to offer you a lot of advice but chances are slim to none that you will be off the ship by 7:15. Then YOU and only you must carry everything off yourself. The staff will not help you.so 3 pieces of luggage, a stroller and a kid. Maybe you could have the kid walk and stack everything on the stroller, I don't know. But it is very doubtful that the ship will be cleared and you get through customs/immigration by 7:15. Book the flight for the next day.... it's the one you will be taking anyway.

Too late, my flight is already booked and can't be changed without paying the whole fare again for both of us. We are booked in Aqua Class with Celebrity which gives us priority disembarkation so hopefully we will be one of the first people off the ship and there will not be large queues at customs. Will the staff not even assist me if I give them a cash tip?

I am about to go on my first cruise on 21st October and I'm slightly concerned about the disembarking/luggage procedures. There is only one flight a day I can get back to Scotland so it's crucial I am off the ship by 7.15am at the latest and the the ship docks apparently at 5am. Should I insist on keeping my luggage with me the night before so it comes off with us? That won't be easy physically, as I'm travelling alone and will have a 3 year old, his stroller, 2 suitcases, and one piece of hand luggage to manoeuvre off the ship. But, if it's the difference between making our flight and missing it, I'll strap the suitcases to my back if necessary!! :eek:

Any seasoned cruisers out there able to give me some advice please? I have no idea what happens when they take your cases away the night before and how long it takes to get them back when you disembark?

Thanks, Gillian x