peteukmcr

if you like Mexican, then there's Chimichangas on Oxford Street.

Now that the new development at West Quay has opened, there are many venues to try.

Many national chains, including, but not limited to

Wahaca

Carluccios

Cabana

CAU

Thaikhun

Pizza Express

Zizzi

https://www.west-quay.co.uk/dining

You Guys should be booking with Cunard rather than looking to P&O ( P oor & O rdinary or P ensioners & O ld folk ) P&O is a bit behind the times when it comes to the Pink Pound ;)

For me, it'd be price. Greek Isles are very port intensive, so you really don't do much on board at night. We did it on Rhapsody, and it was, for us, the perfect size ship. I think Jewel hold less passengers, so that might be a plus especially at ports that you tender. So, I'd do best deal for best cabin. Also, since we're D+ the happy hour is definitely a game changer for me. I was not as fond of Celebrity's version. Enjoy Royal Caribbean's happy hour much more. And honestly, it was our "wind down" event after long days in port.

Although I agree as D+ the evening cocktail hour is far superior on RCI over X (their times are too restrictive for us), the fact that all Mediterranean sailings we've had on X included the beverage package meant the Elite cocktail hour wasn't relevant.

I would like to know what people think as well, in my case Jewel of the seas vs reflection for a Greece cruise.

The OP started the same thread on the Celebrity forum and specified Reflection vs Jewel.

I was composing my reply when you you both confirmed the ships being compared.

If it was solely on the ships, I'd choose Reflection over Jewel, no contest IMHO.

More speciality restaurant choices (Murano, Qsine, Tuscan Grille, Lawn Club Grill, The Porch), fantastic coffee shop in Cafe Al Bacio (which is far superior to any coffee shop on any RCI ship), wonderfully laid out Buffet in the Oceanview Cafe, Lawn Club, outdoor restaurants with the Lawn Club Grill and Porch. The sunset bar is the place to meet in the evening.

I need to qualify that we've sailed Brilliance (sister to Jewel several times too)

What are your views on the two cruise lines, Same itinerary, Italy and the Greek Isles? Which would you choose and did you do either cruise?

We've sailed Italy and the Greek Isles on RCI when Splendour of the Seas plied that route from Venice.

We sailed on Constellation from Italy (Civitavecchia via Greece (Athens) and the islands to Istanbul. Reflection was a round trip from Civitavecchia.

From what I can see now, RCI use Jewel or Rhapsody (sister to Splendour) on either a departure from Civitavecchia or Venice.

Celebrity appear to use Constellation (our first X ship) and Reflection (sailed on in 2017 in the Med).

Constellation is slightly larger than Jewel which in turn is larger than Rhapsody. Reflection is the youngest of the ships.

It all depends what you need from a port intensive sailing that these tend to be.

We feel the service, ambiance and food is better on Celebrity than RCI. There may be no rock climbing walls on Celebrity, but then again the RCI ships on these routes don't have the amenities of the larger ships like Flow Riders, Zip Lines, Ice Skating etc.

Probably comes down to the size of ship you prefer, the price and what offers are being at the time of booking.

I wouldn't averse to sailing either line on these routes but if the price was the same would choose Celebrity.

Here's a video from our Reflection sailing

It's not about the cruise lines, it's about the ships. Which two ships?

I do not see any reason they need to add letters to the basic originals. One can see the type of meeting being convened. In this respect I do not see any reason that a straight person or even an inter-racial couple celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary should not attend, provided they are not turning up to disrupt things. I am assuming that everybody attending does not discriminate against straight people.

 

Regards John

On our latest Celebrity sailing (I believe the 1st cruise line to be able to offer same sex marriages on board at sea after a change in the law in Malta which is their country of registration) there was a LGBT meeting at the Martini Bar every evening at 19:15.

However, that did not mean that this bar (must be one of the most inside popular bars in the fleet) was closed as a private event, resulting in any guest not being able to access.

It was just advertised as a venue where like minded people could meet. It wasn't hosted by officers and so not 'official' by any means but was clearly advertised in the daily news letter 'Celebrity Today'.

I can assure you that nobody at the Martini Bar discriminated against straight people, in fact we probably chatted to more non LGBT people! That's how we are.

They now list them as LGBTQ

Apparently Q stands for Questioning !

More commonly Q stands for Queer which apparently is now seen as a more positive title than in my youth when it was seen as extremely derogatory [emoji1] Personally I don’t wish to be known as ‘queer’ I hate that term.

Don’t forget the ‘I’ in LGBTQI which includes ‘intersex’ people or gender fluid.

Actually I think it’s getting out of hand.

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This is still not available on U.K. site!

 

 

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I know. A little frustrating, especially as the TA isn’t showing.

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Nassau - final port stop

We arrived into Nassau first and was then joined by Norwegian Sky, Carnival Elation and Victory and Disney Dream.

It was going to be a busy day.

We'd booked a day pass at the Hilton British Colonial that we've visited before. Nothing changes, this hotel has the slowest check in and check out procedure we've ever experienced. All done with a smile, but really slow! The benefit of this hotel is it's proximity to the port, no cabs required and the food's good.

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/12/nassau-bahamas/

We arrived the next day into Miami and we waited to disembark and catch our shuttle to the day room Celebrity had booked for us at the Sheraton Miami Airport.

All was going well until there was a fire alarm in the terminal building. As a result the terminal had to be cleared and so disembarkation was suspended for around 1 hour. Not a problem for us as we had the luxury of waiting on board in the Moonlight Sonata dining room. Unfortunately for those who had disembarked but not collected their bags, they had to evacuate the terminal and then be allowed back in to claim their bags.

Once we were allowed to disembark, it was a fairly smooth transit through immigration but then the chaos of the transfers delayed the process even more.

As there was a delay due to the earlier evacuation, then it would appear the whole transfer process had been held up and there wasn't enough buses for some transfers and the staff were rushing around to find available transport.

We arrived at the hotel and managed to check in rapidly and reached the room by just gone midday. Unfortunately this curtailed our shopping plans as we now only had a couple of hours before we'd have to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport as we needed to check in by 3:30 pm.

We headed off the the Dolphin Mall and grabbed some lunch and basically ran around getting some of the shopping we'd planned.

Then it was back to the hotel, then off to the airport for our flight back to the UK.

That's all there is, but we consider this TA one of the best we've done. It was a combination of the itinerary, the ship, the staff and the weather that made it for us.

If you have possibly 20 minutes to spare, here's a video presentation of the sailing.

https://youtu.be/qvDTQb_paSw

After Bermuda we have our final day at sea in order to reach Nassau.

We decide to start organising the packing which has to be done some day!

Tonight is the final Evening Chic so it's time for the tuxes to be worn again and we had a great evening.

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/12/final-day-at-sea/

Sorry not completed this review but with the holiday period I completely forgot! Also we were away at Christmas on a short break to the Costa Del Sol in Spain so a lot of things were let slide!

Anyway we had a great 1.5 days (due to early departure on day 2 from Bermuda.

Upon arrival we headed over to Hamilton by ferry and had a good look around and I purchased some authentic Bermuda shorts.

My view of Bermuda is that it is expensive, so that explains why it's popular for cruise ships to dock for a couple of nights where guests can eat and drink on board.

The highlight for us was a sunset catamaran cruise on the first day.

The blog for days 1 & 2 are here

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/10/the-devils-isle-day-one/

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/11/devils-isle-day-two/

Thanks, have looked on both the UK and USA sites and the Transatlantic doesn't seem to be on either of them. The three from New York are on the USA site but not the UK one yet.

 

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We've prebooked such a package for 200$ for our Feb. Solstice cruise for the first time. Heard about it here by one of you folks (thanks!) and found the package to be available to be paid by OBC via X's website. Pricing is one charge per stateroom.

 

Those of you who booked this before: how does it work - do you need to register with the foto guys upon boarding? And how to get every picture together at last - visit the photo booth every day to collect pics or does this work somehow automatical (face recognition software?). Also: do you get (some) of the general cruise shots or do you have to pay extra for these?

 

Do you tip extra? If so: how and when...?

 

Thanks a lot for your tips!

Although I booked onboard ($350 less $100 discount offer and then Elite 20% discount = $200) I registered my email address on one of the photo kiosks with the help of a member of staff, for the email that is sent after the cruise giving you access to all the photos so that you can download them for 30 days.

For all the actual printed photos, we collected them every couple of days and handed them into the staff who put them in a folder with your cabin number on. The evening before the end of the cruise you can pick the folder up with your printed photos in.

One bit of advice. Check that all your printed photos are shown on the kiosk, because if any are missing you won't be able to download them after the cruise. So if like us you had say 45 printed photos, make sure the same 45 are showing on the kiosk.

Also, for those that have a location and date frame (like gangway shots when you disembark at a port), make sure the frame is correct on those displayed on the kiosk. For example, we had 2 photos that clearly showed we were in Bermuda (due to the props used in the photo) but the frame said we were in Tenerife in the Canary Islands on a different date, we didn't even stop there!

Does anyone miss the old formal evenings?

No, because we still dress formally, even on Evening Chic nights. Plus wearing jackets in places like Murano.

SamFritz, please accept our sincere condolences from over here in the UK.

Our sincere condolences are sent for all others involved in this tragic accident.

So pleased to read your thoughts Karen. As mentioned, there are things that need improving to meet our expectations too (obviously been on too many 'US' lines lol).

I also feel that there inconsistency between ships, because, as you know we've sailed with MSC twice now, and the service and the way things were organised was so different on Fantasia after our first on Splendida. Fantasia was the inferior, with a few more frustrations.

The one thing I want to see being offered is the equivalent of MTD, but I'm not prepared to pay for the Aurea experience for it. Set dining times on our last sailing was far too late at 9:15pm.

I'm also watching the price rises that they are implementing, because this could negate the desire to sail with them, unless the service aspect improves.

At the moment I'm awaiting the release of the TA that Meraviglia will be doing to New York in 2019, that's one we're interested in because the days of reasonable prices for a TA with Celebrity and RCI seem to be over of the prices if those released for 2019 are anything to go by.

just looked at booking OASIS of the seas in the mediterranean for the summer of 2019.

I think royal are having a laugh.

£1650 per person for a balcony cruise only.

no chance of me going at them prices.

and if a wine that is included in your package is not listed in the speciality restaurant (e.g. Mer Soleil only offered in Murano if I remember correctly) Qsine and Tuscan will get it for you.

What about those not in suites? How is the Eclipse faring for them?

Our sommelier in the MDR was Ana and she was absolutely fantastic. We were on the Premium Beverage package and from day 1 she knew our favourite wine and I can tell you that as soon as we sat down for dinner, the glasses were filled and continually throughout dinner. Our wait staff too were so professional they were fantastic.

Throughout the ship from Cafe Al Bacio, Martini Bar, to the World Class Bar, all staff were wonderful, especially in Cellar Masters where Yasna (sp?) the sommelier was also brilliant in anticipating our needs and making wonderful suggestions of wines to try.

All staff in the speciality restaurants were fantastic too.

Maybe we're low maintenance, but never fear if things don't happen, or if things go wrong, we will speak up. I measure how good a cruise is, by the number of times I have to attend Guest Services in person. Over 15 nights, I visited Guest Services only on 3 occasions! 1 to credit my account with cash, 1 to get a new immigration form because I'd messed up the first one, and 1 to try and find out what time group 9 would be called to present ourselves to US immigration officials when we arrived into Boston. As you can see, not once was I there to report an issue. That's different to previous experiences on RCI and P&O. So I consider this one of, if not, the best cruise, ship and cruise company we've experienced over 13 years and 25+ sailings.

Admittedly I saw the Captains Club host once to voice my displeasure over the 'Xcelerate' internet service, and she was my only disappointment as she side stepped the issue and referred me to the iLounge staff. But then again that wasn't spoiling my time on board.

November 7th - at sea

Another day at sea as we head for Bermuda. Our usual routine of our eating, drinking, gym, Hot Glass Show, photographing the ship and enjoying the best sunset we'd experienced on this trip, especially from the Sunset Bar now that the weather is that bit warmer!

Today's blog

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/09/bermuda-bound-another-day-at-sea/

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More from our sail away from NYC

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New York - day 2

Today we decided that we would head off the ship for breakfast, back to the 'Comfort Diner' which we discovered during our visit in 2016. A traditional diner that we really enjoyed.

Afterwards we walked to the Empire State Building where I'd booked tickets to go to the viewing platform as we didn't visit during 2016 (we did the Freedom Tower and Top of the Rock last time).

Although it was still misty and cloudy the views weren't the best and it was a little chilly up there and after all these years I think I've developed vertigo! Never bothered me before but earlier this year was up the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and I didn't enjoy that experience. Maybe as I've got older, it's got worse.

Anyway, after that we headed off to do some shopping and walked through Times Square and back to the ship.

Although we don't have to be back onboard until 4pm, we've done enough walking and sightseeing for today and enjoy the quiet of the ship.

As we had lunch, NCL Breakaway departed followed later by Seven Seas Mariner which then enabled us to see the Intrepid with Concorde on her top deck.

Shortly after 5 Eclipse departs from Pier 90 and as we're on the port side we have a wonderful view of Manhattan all lit up as we head down the Hudson. The mist has cleared and the Empire State is resplendent illuminated for all to see, as is the Freedom Tower as we pass by. We celebrate leaving New York with the 2nd of our bottles of champagne we brought onboard in Southampton. It's been chilling for a while!

I head up to the pool deck to get some night shots of the Statue of Liberty and later we pass under the Verrazano Narrows bridge again as we head for our next port of call - Bermuda.

Tonight we dined in Murano again and then off to another Silent Disco.

Great 2 days in NYC, loved this part of the itinerary. Next stop overnight Bermuda. Looking forward to that too as never had the fortune to visit there yet.

Todays blog link

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/07/new-york-day-two/

Some more photos from our first day in Manhattan

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New York - 5th November

We approached New York and picked up the pilot at Sandy Hook whilst travelling at low speed due to regulations regarding migrating whales in the area.

Although warmer than yesterday in Boston, the weather in New York was drizzly and as a result the views were hazy.

Lots of people gathered on deck to experience the ship going under the Verrazano Narrows bridge at around 12:15 before sailing up the Hudson to our dock in Manhattan, passing the Statue of Liberty at 12:30.

Having never experienced this before, you could feel the anticipation of many of our fellow sailors as we approached Manhattan.

I have to say it is a magical experience passing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island in the distance and the Manhattan skyline off the starboard side. Unfortunately the iconic buildings of the Freedom Tower and Empire State Building were not visible due to the mist and rain.

What made it more iconic was the passing of a Staten Island Ferry in front of the Statue of Liberty on the port side.

We finally docked at Pier 90 next to NCL Breakaway and Seven Seas Mariner in between us and USS Intrepid.

We decided to disembark and catch a cab to Macys, hopefully heading in the opposite direction of the end of the New York marathon which was heading for Central Park where the race ended. Although still drizzling it was a great ride through Times Square with the bright neon lights of the advertising hoardings lighting up the grey sky.

After a spot of shopping we headed back to the ship to change and head for our twilight Hudson River cruise from Pier 84.

The mist had lifted to a degree and we enjoyed one of the most educational and spectacular river excursion we'd ever had on the Hudson.

Upon return we headed off towards Hells Kitchen for a cocktail at a bar we'd visited when last in New York in 2016 (well we couldn't get liquor on the ship) and then onto a Mexican Restaurant I'd chosen, called 'Hell's Kitchen'. Great choice, in our opinion.

After dinner we headed back taking the street one block south of the restaurant (W50th) and headed straight down to the ship.

On the way back we passed groups of very excited crew heading into the city. Seeing none we allowed off the ship in Boston it was great to see that they were going to be able to enjoy down time in Manhattan.

We headed for the Sky Lounge and relaxed with some wine enjoying the views and lights of Manhattan which I don't think you get the chance to see from so close a vantage point.

Todays blog

https://highseasescapades.co.uk/2017/11/07/new-york-day-one/

I'm looking for the TA from Europe to New York, that's of great interest to me. Hopefully on sale soon.