midwestchick

I forgot, Ellen (aka Dreamer976 on CC) got some screen shots of our sailaway!

 

Thank you so very much Ellen =)

 

 

 

 

 

And there she goes!

 

Once again thank Ellen, it was very sweet of you.

 

 

Everytime I see that ship sailaway I want to be on her :D ....my poor husband...I make him watch it with me....lol...

Hi Nancy, you mean a lanyard? Some folks do, some folks don't.

I don't......I prefer to carry it in my pocket. Everyone has their

own style:)

That must be it...didn't know the name of it. :o Does the ship provide it or do they bring their own? I just kept our's in my purse on our last cruise.

I watched the live webcam that day :D...in fact I usually try to watch on Sat. and Sun. Something to pass the winter duldrums away. The video worked fine for me.

Does everyone get some kind of thing to wear around your neck for your sea pass?

Oh...I wonder if you can figure out where cabin 7225, port side is and circle it for me....I don't want to impose on your good nature, but I keep trying to figure out our cabin when I watch the sail aways....I know we're midship.

Gambee, thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into your amazing reviews!!! Not to mention, the additional time and thoughtfulness in responding to all your followers! :D

 

I too have been planning to bring an emergency kit on our next cruise, and will steal some of your ideas but I HAVE to know: WHAT are those parrot-shaped clamp thingies??

 

 

Also, my son and I both suffer from motion sickness and nausea and have previously used ginger gum, but have never heard of Ginger Pills: how do you like those compared to Pepto Bismol?

 

 

Thank you so much in advance!!

 

P.S. You and my 18yo son have nearly identical taste in clothing, right down to your hat!!! And yes, I do virtually all of his shopping for him. :D

The little parrots are Boca clips for your beach towels so they don't blow off the chairs. You can get them at Bed, Bath and Beyond...they have several styles. I always take them on vacation.

Gambee...I'm not familiar with you or your trip reports but I'm enjoying this so much. We sail on the Silhouette in Sept. and I can hardly wait. :D I'll have to look for your other trip reports.

Pisa and Florence in 1 day is doable....but more than that you'd be rushing and not really see anything. Also be careful in Pisa, there are a lot of pickpockets there. Seeing Florence and maybe something else like a winery or something in the countryside would be ideal IMO. We found Pisa to be too overrated and too touristy and we could've done without the visit there.

Not only pickpockets but we were also warned by our tour guide about there being a lot of the little "gypsy kids" that steal purses, etc. We got there much later in the day and did not see any that day....thank goodness. And it was loaded with tourists and other tour buses.

What about the heat from the refrigerator? I notice the safe is above it. Is it hot inside of the safe.

I was not aware the ship had a safe if you have large sums of money, which we wouldn't carry with us anyway. How do you know the ship's safes are safe?

I enjoyed your review and I too am looking forward to pictures....particularly cabin pictures. We'll be on Silhouette in Sept. and I'm really looking forward to all our ports.

I read about this trip report on our Celebrity Cruise roll call...and I have to admit I've spent hours today reading it and thoroughly enjoyed and loved all of it.

Sherri...you have done an amazing job and I applaude you and I've enjoyed every page...I know I will never write a review now...way too much competition for me. ;) I've learned so much and we will be visiting some of the same ports you did...some we did last year...and the Cit..Cita...Citave...lol....I had a heck of a time pronouncing that one.

I loved our Azamara cruise last year and it was port intensive and we're not spring chickens....one good thing, our upcoming cruise will have two sea days and we're doing the cruise tour option so hopefully we'll be able to rest up a bit before we sail. I don't plan on being idle once we are on the ship...I want to see as much as we can and will strive to do that...I'll look at what is offered as far as shore excursions with Celebrity but will also look at the companies you used. Thank you for posting all of them.

For you other ladies...I did find some shoes that are very lightweight and great for packing and even better for walking...Skechers Go Walk...they are wonderful and come in a variety of colors. They are not the most glamorous and I love my sandals and flip flops but they were wonderful for walking on the uneven cobbletstone pavement...and uphill and downhill walking.

For those of you that can afford to take a cruise like this and are putting it off...ask yourself..."how many times have you seen a U-haul behind a hearse ;) :D...puts it all in prospective.

We have spent a lot of time driving around Tuscany on lengthy trips and would never consider stopping in Pisa unless we had others with us who insisted on seeing the place ( the reason for our last visit). It is unlikely we would ever be near Florence without visiting (and usually spending a couple of nights) as we do not like to miss visiting San Gimignano, Volterra, the Chianti wine area (S222), etc. When it comes to leaning towers, you can find them all over Italy :)

 

Hank

That also seems like a lot to me too. On our recent cruise, we chose a shore excursion...we saw the Tuscan countryside..(gorgeous), visited Volterra and absolutely loved it. Then we had a delicious lunch at a farm where they made wine (Fattoria San Donato) and then we went to Pisa. While I wouldn't have done this trip without seeing Pisa, I would not do Pisa again. We did not do Florence because we had seen that years ago when we went to Europe for my husband's job. I'm wondering if San Gimignano was another village we saw in the Tuscan hillside...one women on our tour mentioned a village we should have seen. I can say we were exhausted after that excursion...it was a long day but I in hindsight, I wish we'd had more time in Volterra. I loved the shops and wanted to spend more time looking at the alabaster jewlery and other things shops offered. I would love to see Lucca one day.

That's so true... being the first to arrive or the last to leave is such a huge benefit to capturing nice photos as much for the early/late light as for the lack of tourists. One of the downsides to being a photography enthusiast is that I have to be up earlier to be among the first off the ship in most ports to have a fighting chance of good photos. The non photography side of me would much prefer to sleep in. :o

 

Another trick to getting shots of monuments or structures without other people in them is to try different angles from where most other people are shooting from... try at the base looking up or a different kind of framing, or zooming in.

 

Another trick I've used is to utilize an ultra wide angle lens and move right up close.

 

Last but not least, you can always photoshop people out of your photos. Like this one of the entrance to the field at Olympia... (I tried to wait it out but it was fruitless)

 

 

Here's the original...

 

How do you photoshop a picture...I have no idea.

Doesn't Celebrity offer some decent shore excursions? I'm not one to plan a lot of my own...and I want to see as much as I can when we visit Santorini...I've heard such wonderful things about. Shore excursions are not up yet for our cruise in Sept. and I've just begun researching ports.

Wonderful pictures and report....thank you so much for sharing.

Just the thought of bed bugs makes me sick. It has become a real problem. Once bed bugs invade, it is very hard to get rid of them. What I don't understand is why Azamara moved you back into the infested cabin. If it had been me, there would be no way that I could have stayed in that cabin. You deserve compensation......and not future cruise credits. I hope that you get reimbursed for your expenses. Have you talked to customer service?

A big ditto...while it may have worked out well...there are no excuses for bed bugs. Hotels, cruise ships and the like should be doing anything preventable so this does not happen and if they do the necessary steps to prevent them, it does not happen. Bed bugs are one of the first things I look for when entering any hotel room....the thought makes me cringe.