Boatharbour

38 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

How was Taiwan?  Taipei? 

Definitely worth seeing although we only saw a small portion of the country.  The ship visited Taipei and Kaohsiung. We could easily have spent a few more days in Taipei alone. We booked a private tour and had a wonderful guide who knew we were pushed for time. He showed us the “highlights of the highlights”. What I found particularly interesting were the historical links between Japan, China and Taiwan - the three countries on the ship’s itinerary. I hope Celebrity repeats in the future. 

48 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

@Boatharbour what was the name of your cruise?  I don't see it.

Been and gone. It was November 2019 on Millenium. 

10 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

Isn't November during typhoon season?

I think typhoon season in Japan is May to October. The weather was cool, but definitely no typhoons. 
If Celebrity repeats the itinerary we had, I would highly recommend it.

Japan - Shanghai- Taiwan- Hong Kong.

Here are some of those autumn colours. 

15 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

The Japan cherry-blossom cruises tend to be very popular. The season is brief!

As beautiful as the cherry blossom is, the autumn foliage is just as beautiful. We travelled to Japan in November 2019 and were dazzled by the vivid and intense colours of the trees and shrubs. You may find it easier to book a cruise then, unless your heart is set on seeing the cherry blossom. 

Here are some photos of the seating setup on Millenium in late 2019. The weather wasn’t great, so we didn’t go to any of the movies.

We couldn’t fault the stateroom or location and the staff were exceptional. Interesting that these rooms now have a different classification. They were C1 on our cruise, albeit more expensive than other C1’s. 

So glad we managed to take that trip to Japan, just before the world changed. 

 We stayed in room 7203 during our Japan / Hong Kong cruise in November - December 2019. I’ll try to post some photos, but we loved the room.

Very quiet and private. Huge verandah with two sun lounges, two chairs and two tables. The canvas canopy gave plenty of protection from the weather, but you could sit in the sun if you pulled the chairs forward.
This was our first cruise on an M class ship ( previously only on S class), but we found Millenium a beautiful ship in excellent condition. 

We were on Millenium in a C1 aft cabin and thought the ship was in excellent condition. Couldn’t fault anything in our stateroom. Public areas were all beautiful too. The Oceanview Cafe was well designed, with hand washing areas. We loved the high stools that faced out to sea. Can’t say I would feel the same about eating at a buffet these days though. 

Prior to Millennium we had only sailed on S class ships, but we really enjoyed the ambience of Millenium. By the way, while  we were on board, there was a session in the theatre  about the refurbishment which was very interesting. 

3 minutes ago, yorky said:

I know, just found it strange they had moved flying dates forward, I see it’s to nine countries.

Me too. I guess it provides options for people who need to return to their own countries, have compassionate reasons and are prepared to go through the quarantine period. 

1 hour ago, yorky said:

Just got an email from Emirates stating they are to commence flying from yesterday between the UK and Australia. I had thought it was going to be July at the earliest.

Emirates may be flying here, but unless you’re a permanent resident or citizen, you won’t be allowed to enter the country. Even if you are eligible, you’ll spend 14 nights in quarantine in designated quarantine hotels. 
 

Australians are still banned from leaving the country ( except under the most exceptional circumstances). 

19 hours ago, yorky said:

Safety paramount when on the ship, a guarantee that if you travelled you could not catch the virus ? A very different thing. As I say joint responsibility. People made their own decision to travel fully aware of what was going on around them. I caught Norovirus on a cruise ship 10 years ago, I’m sure my safety was paramount at that time. We are all surely aware that no ship/ plane can put a huge bubble around us protecting us from everything.

Agree you can’t put a bubble around everyone, but difficult to make the right decision about travel when information may be withheld from you by the cruise line.  
 

 In at least one instance, passengers embarking on a New Zealand cruise were not informed that passengers on the previous cruise had flu like symptoms. Nor were they told until after they had disembarked that there was an outbreak on their cruise too. An unusual pre-dawn arrival, ambulances meeting the ship and taking sick passengers away in the dark and an unusually hasty disembarkation for the remaining passengers. 
 

I wonder how many may have changed their decision to travel had  they known the full facts. 
 

3 hours ago, rte said:

I am not sure why you have aimed your comment at me about the Ruby Princess.Just remember

if we could not fly we would not be up this creek and some of the responsablity must go to the airlines.

I

The airlines are not responsible for what is alleged to have happened on the Ruby Princess. 

21 hours ago, rte said:

True or not Covid -19 arrived by air and we had no idea it was here until the infected fell sick.

Should we consider legal action against the airline?

It may well have arrived by air to start with, but the criminal investigation taking place in to the Ruby Princess is about  the  actions of the ships management after the illness became apparent on board - on two cruises. 
If their actions are found to be wanting, then they should be held to account. 

10 minutes ago, Ronin23 said:

Another interesting note is that they are saying patient zero was a crew member in the galley. Will be interesting to see the implications for Carnival if true. 

18 passengers now deceased and over 40% of the Australian passengers have become infected. Alarmingly, nearly 1000 passengers flew overseas after the cruise,  many to the US.

On 4/11/2020 at 3:39 AM, DaveSJ711 said:

 

"Overblown"?  Not for the passengers on the Ruby Princess.  The article's headline says it all.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/people-just-didnt-care-how-the-ruby-princess-cruise-ship-became-a-death-trap/2020/04/10/058ab45e-7a33-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html

 

 

To add to this story...another two passengers from the Ruby Princess died in Australia today. 

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Thanks for the info. MarineTraffic has her listed as going to Singapore, but it didn't make sense to me since she was heading south, so I didn't record that. 

 

Similarly, MarineTraffic has Constellation listed as heading to St. George, Bermuda although she was sailing towards Piraeus and not away from there, so I don't know what to make of that either.  

I thought it was odd too, but the news report said the destination was Singapore. 

Last time I checked  she  was heading down past Eden off the south coast of NSW - which is in the opposite direction to Singapore. I believe there are sick crew on board, so maybe they want to stay close to Australian waters as long as they by taking the long route. 

Solstice was restocked and refuelled with provisions  yesterday in a massive operation in Sydney Harbour, along with four other ships. All were required to leave  Australian waters under Border Force orders. Solstice is currently south of Sydney and heading to Singapore

The Ruby Princess is still anchored  outside Sydney . Over 600 cases of COVID19 have been linked to this ship. 

The largest peacetime maritime operation in Sydney Harbour is currently underway as 5 cruise ships are restocked with provisions. Celebrity Solstice is one of the 5 and is leaving Australian waters tonight by order of  Border Force. 

The New Zealand prime minster has announced a ban on all cruise ships coming to New Zealand from midnight tonight. Effective until

at least 30 June. 
 

We had solid dividers on our Millenium cruise in late November 2019. We were in an aft cabin and enjoyed the privacy. 

On 2/18/2020 at 4:46 PM, Edinburghgirl1 said:

I too disagree that the cruises in Asia are primarily for Asians. I have sailed on the Millenium twice from Singapore and Asians were in the minority on both those cruises. I would say Europeans, Australians and Americans made up the bulk of the passengers. 

I agree with you. Our sailing from Tokyo to HK last November / December  was definitely not predominantly Asian. Canadian, American, European and Australian passengers far outnumbered Asian passengers. 

17 hours ago, LouieT said:

we celebrated our anniversary last cruise at Le Petit Chef. It was actually GREAT. Because the room is all having this unique experience together it was like a big party. At the end we had a ball with the amazing animation and food, and then the whole room sang happy anniversary - we all walked out together as new friends the rest of the cruise.

We also celebrated our anniversary (40th) at LPC on Millenium recently and had a fantastic time too. DH thought it was a regular restaurant having done no prior research. The look on his face was priceless when the animations began. We had so much fun that evening that we’ll always remember.
 

There are other threads where opinion differs about LPC and the quality of the food,  but two of the three courses we had were among the best of the cruise.
 

Not impressed by Tuscan at all. On M class it lacks the wake view and the food was really no better or different to the MDR. 

On 1/21/2020 at 10:51 PM, justcrusn said:

So, two separate cruises, in SELECT dining where you go anytime and sit anywhere, but yet, SOMEHOW, you were in the one dreadful area each night?

The whole concept of select dining is not to sit at the same table at the same time every night. 

What I don’t understand is how you could accomplish this. We’ve been select diners before and had to work to get the same table and servers. It can be pretty random if you arrive at different times, different tables are open. 
At any point did you ask for a different table and were refused?

I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience but I'm unable to offer much sympathy.

We were in the position of having select dining and each night found ourselves taken to the same area - without requesting it. 
 

We prebooked our select dining reservations in the cruise planner for various times between 6.45 to 7.30. Each night on arrival we asked for a table for two, but found we were being taken to the same area each night where we were sandwiched between other tables that were too close together for our liking. 
 

Halfway through the cruise we politely declined this area and after a short wait were taken to a quieter spot that we preferred. Every night after that, we went through the same routine. Polite decline, very short wait and then seated in our preferred area. My feeling was that for some reason we had been allocated to an area. 

13 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

So, South Korea was not on the planned itinerary? 

Not as a port where we could go ashore.
Jeju, South Korea was listed on the itinerary as a  ‘technical stop’ to satisfy Chinese immigration laws. 

7 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

Please tell me more about this "stop" in South Korea??

 

I have been to Shanghai once before on a short grad school trip.  Went to I think the Hyatt Hotel on 54th floor of a skyscraper.  Wonderful view.

This is from the email sent to passengers on our cruise after Celebrity changed the original 23 Nov 2019 itinerary -

 Due to Chinese Immigration Law we are prohibited from sailing directly to Taiwan from mainland China. We have therefore added a stop in Jeju, South Korea after we depart Shanghai and before we arrive in Taipei. Our call to South Korea will be considered a technical stop during which time all guests will remain onboard. 

We didn’t actually stop. Sailed there, turned around straight away and headed to Taiwan.