cwtravel

did you go to Sydney before the cruise? If so do you have suggestions on where to stay?

We are doing this exact cruise April 2016. Interested in any information you can give us.

 

What airline did you fly? in the planning stages now and am overwhelmed with what to do first. We have been to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora before and love those islands but Australia is new to us.

If you can stay, using either points or $$, stay at The Park Hyatt in Sydney. Great location, staff and hotel. My wife and I stayed @ the PH last March before our Solistice cruise & will definitely stay there again if I have enough Hyatt points before our next Solstice cruise. By the way we flew Qantas thru Dallas to Sydney in Premium Economy and was quite pleased with the flights. I'm not quite ready to shell out over $10,000 for my wife & I to fly business class so the PE worked out well. No way I would fly there in coach!

Thanks for the review, I am looking at either the October 2016 Sydney-Singapore or the 2017 Sydney-Hawaii.

With the Emerald & Golden in Australia/NZ where is the Diamond? Back in the U.S. on the Mexico and Hawaii run?

The wife & I flew Qantas PE March 2014 from Dallas to Sydney. This was on their 747-400ER planes.

I thought the flights were great. The seats do have foot rests that pop up from the seats and I was able to get pretty good rest/sleep especially flying from North America to Australia ( it was dark for almost the entire flight). IFE was good, plenty of old and new movies and tv shows.

There was at least 1 flight attendant dedicated to the PE section and service was good. There is also a bathroom for the PE section and most of the time no line. I did walk back to coach a few times and it looked brutal to me!

Any issues with luggage on the train? I am looking at the train from BWI to NYC to do the Carnival Splendor NY to San Juan in April. None of the trains have baggage service and the Amtrak web site makes it would like there is limited storage room in the cars.

We travel pretty light but will each have a rolling bag.

Thanks,

Chris

Was on the Reflection in November and was not happy with Blu at all but everything else was great. Did you happen to have Gordon as your butler? He is fantastic!

They use A & B terminals and 1 hour should be fine.

I fly Southwest very frequently and BWI is my home airport.

Thanks for the review!

Question- Which did you like better, Reflection or Silhouette? and why?

I will lean slightly towards the Silhouette due to less passengers. Both have the Porch & Lawn Club Grill and also the Hideway, which is a convenient place to grab a cup of coffee or tea.

I dismiss the Sunset Bar set up that the Reflection has.

Both ships are very similar.

Hello-

Just got back to a snowy/icy/wintery Maryland after a nice, relaxing week on the Silhouette.

This was the third Celebrity cruise the wife and I have been on in less than a year with the most recent being November on the Reflection (also was on the Solstice March/April 2014) and our 12th Celebrity cruise. We are both in our early 50's.

Highlights:

- Suite guests were given complementary access to the speciality dining for dinner due to the construction of the new Suites Restaurant. First time we ate at Murano and the lobster was excellent.

- Labadee was great, first time we had been to Labadee and we thought it was much nicer than Princess Cay and I liked it better than Half Moon Cay (wife thought HMC had a better beach). We went to the suites only beach, plenty of shade.

- The weather was fantastic, sunny and warm at all ports.

- Friendly, hard working crew

- Had a hard time using our onboard credit since this cruise was booked on the Reflection with the 123 promotion (and the complimentary speciality dining)

While things were not perfect I think Celebrity offers a product that is hard to beat for the price.

The wife and I did this trip earlier this year and it was fantastic! Do a search for Terry from Ohio's trip report, he has great pictures and some really good observations & insights.

By the way, we did 3 nights in Sydney, flew to Auckland and spent two nights before boarding the Solstice. The ship docks next to the Auckland Hilton and part of the hotel is used for the check-in. If you can afford, or have Hyatt points, check out the Park Hyatt Sydney, it is a great hotel in a spectacular location.

Chris

The clearance at the Bridge of the Americas is 201 feet, too low for many large cruise ships including the ships included in the Solstice class.

 

I believe that only one ship in the class, the Solstice, has had a modification that allows her to retract her top masts to slip under 200'' about 61 meters

 

I'd like to see the new ships built so that they could pass under the bridges before Sydney and Montreal... 49 meters

Not sure why you would want Celebrity to build a ship that could pass under the Sydney Harbor bridge, and possibly not dock right by the Opera House?

Thanks, they will have everyone's cabin number. I know Princess is the deck # + cabin could not remember for Celebrity.

Thanks, I also think it is just the cabin number.

I have myself, my 80 year old parents and 8 other elderly couples arriving from different parts of the U.S. for the 11/29 sailing. So, I am sending out a cabin list, deck number & location so they can find/call each other.

Thanks again,

Chris

Hello-

Does anyone know how cabin to cabin calls are made on S-class ships (just the room number, deck + room number, etc.)?

Thank you.

It is hard to say what is best, since each person's opinion of a hotel or restaurant could be different but, my wife and I spent three nights at the Park Hyatt in March and we thought it was spectacular! The views are great, rooms very comfortable, service impeccable, rooftop pool and health club outstanding. We really liked the area and it was easy to walk all over Sydney from the hotel. However, the hotel is very expensive ($750-1,000 per night). I was able to use Hyatt points. If I did not have the points we would not have stayed at the Park Hyatt.

For my wife, anything other than the Park Hyatt would be a major let down so I am adding Hyatt points for our next visit in a few years ( am actually staying at a Hyatt tonight). If I did have to pay, I would consider the Holiday Inn in the Rocks to be a prett good choice based on location & price.

Hi-

The wife & I stayed at the Park Hyatt in March. We used Town Cars from the airport to the hotel, had a nice sedan and driver. We flew to Auckland a few days later, and considered using Town Cars again but instead just took a cab. There were plenty at the hotel, the car was clean and the driver was great to speak with. A few weeks later we arrived back in Sydney & took another cab from the ship back to the airport, again no issues.

Have a great trip.

Yes, there is a stop for the Hop On/Hop Off bus just past the ferry building which is very close to the pier where the ship will dock. I do not recall seeing any with an open top though there are some double decker ones.

Auckland is a beautiful city. If you have time take the ferry to Devonport, walk around the town and grab some fish & chips.

Chris

Drew Madsen left Darden about a year ago. Red Lobster was sold and left Darden a couple months ago.

Besides Olive Garden, which is Darden's largest brand, the company also owns and operates Longhorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, Season 52, The Yard House and Eddie V's.

Many of these brands are quite good, & a couple are high end.

Sorry if my original post was confusing...

- Are the regular balcony cabins on the Emerald Deck on the Coral Princess larger than the standard balconies? Are they similar to the Caribe Deck balconies on the Grand Class ships?

- I have also had the mini's on the Emerald Deck on Grand Class ships so, if I decided on a mini on the Coral which ones have covered balconies?

Thanks so much for the responses.

Hello-

The wife & I have 16 Princess cruises, all on Grand Class type ships. We usually grab a Caribe deck cabin with the larger balcony.

I am looking at a sailing on the Coral. Are the balconies larger in the aft Emerald deck cabins?

Any regular balcony recommendations?

Also, if we went up to a mini, any recommendations for a cabin with a covered balcony? This will be for a partial P. Canal cruise in February.

Thanks,

Chris

Since you are flying Business Class I would think you have access to the Delta Lounge in Atlanta.

We are doing this trip also DFW to SYD to AKL we connect in SYD with Jet Connect, Qantas partner, hopefully they check bags all the way to AKL glad to hear to you can just walk to International terminal after deplaning in SYD. Steve

Hello,

I had similar flights in March (DFW-SYD, SYD-AKL & SYD-DFW all on Qantas) though our flight to Auckland was after three nights in Sydney.

A great tip I got was to buy a 30 day membership, for $100, to the American Airlines Admirals Club which allows access to the Qantas Business Class Club in Sydney, along with the AA club in Dallas. I did the purchase online.

The Qantas Club was great, plenty of room, hot food, beer, wine, coffee, showers, good wifi & plenty of Apple desktop computers. Not sure how long your layover is in Sydney but it was the best $100 investment I ever made. The 30 day membership also allowed access for my wife.

Chris

Hello-

I need to drop off a rental car before a November cruise. Am staying downtown at the Conrad and, if possible do not want to return the car to the Miami Airport. Anyone used Budget and returned their car to a downtown location?

Thanks

Most likely you will board at Circular Quay if you are on the Solstice, not sure if the Century would be at the other location.

Quite a few hotels near Circular Quay (Marriott, Holiday Inn, Park Hyatt, Four Seasons). I was very luck to have Hyatt points so the wife and I stayed at the Park Hyatt in March, which is an outstanding (but very expensive) hotel. If you can aford it, or have enough Hyatt points I would strongly recommend the Park Hyatt.

Chris

Hi-

I did not stay at the Crowne Plaza prior to my March cruise but it looked like an easy/fairly short walk, and most, if not all of the walk is downhill from the hotel to where the ship docks.

Chris

Nice pictures Terry!

My wife and I also did a taxi tour right from the pier and ours ended at the top of the cable car which we rode to the bottom and eventually caught the shuttle ( yes Celebrity does provide a shuttle).

Wellington is a beautiful city - very nice sail away also. It is very walker friendly and pretty compact.

Have a great trip!

Chris