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knobcreek

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    symphony of the seas TA

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    I booked this after getting the email from Royal about bookings opening (I've been a bit cruise-disconnected). Not sure if I'll end up on it as I'm also doing the Explorer trans-Pacific in April 18, but we'll see. The only thing I didn't like about the Harmony TA was that there never seemed to be enough room for daily trivia (and nowhere near enough space for the progressive).

     

     

    Anxious to here about your TP, we are schedule for it next April

     

     

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    symphony of the seas TA

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Booked on Tuesday night. Hopefully they will open up the Symphony of the Seas Roll Call area on Cruise Critic soon so we can move over there....

     

     

    For sure, had trouble when I originally posted, they didn't have ship listed anywhere, but from some of the stories I'm hearing travel agents and even some agents for rccl had issues

     

     

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    symphony of the seas TA

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    I should have mentioned that our flights were all from STL, and then non-stop to BCN from ATL, JFK, and EWR. So my costs would have been less had I been flying directly from the gateway cities.

     

     

    Great deal we've been trying to find deals from Florida to St Louis that are lots more than that, what site did you use?

     

     

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    Santorini Ferry boat to Oia?

    in Greece Ports

    Posted

    I took this boat/bus trip in Santorini on August 10 and wanted to post my experience here.

     

    Celebrity Constellation arrived at Santorini at 7:00am. There were no tender tickets - anybody who wanted to get off could just go straight to the tendering area. We wanted to beat the ship's tours to Oia, so we got up early and we were on one of the first tenders to the Old Port below Fira.

     

    Upon arrival at the Old Port at 7:20am, all the shops were shuttered. I asked the fellow sweeping the streets when the stores would open and he said at 7:30am. Sure enough, at 7:25am, a group of workers arrived from Fira and opened up shop.

     

    There were two major tour operators. Both aggressively marketed their boats as "leaving in a few minutes to Oia!". (Of note, "few minutes" is up to individual interpretation as the actual wait to departure was 30-45 minutes - more on this later.) The shop closer to the entrance for the cable car is called Dakoutros Bros J.V. They told me that they needed a minimum of 12 passengers before they would leave. I do not recall the name of the other vendor further away from the cable car entrance. One fellow (not super friendly) there told me that their boat would leave at 8:00am regardless of how many passengers they had enticed; however, they were expecting two large European groups off the cruise ship. Another representative from the same company told me something entirely different! Therefore, I decided to go with the Dakoutros Bros company as they were vague about departure time but at least consistently so.

     

    Both companies charged the same fare of EUR15 per person, which includes the boat ride, a bus ride from the Oia dock to the town (close to the bus station), and a bus ride from Oia to Fira (departing once an hour). Cable car from Fira to its Old Port (tendering area) is NOT included. There is a discounted fare for children, but the nice gentleman at Dakoutros Bros did not charge anything for my daughter! We were given three separate color-coded receipts: one for ferry ride, and one for each of the bus rides.

     

    A large group did indeed arrive at around 7:45am and at 8:00am they boarded the other boat and left for Oia. The Dakoutros Bros boat did not leave until 8:15am, after it had accumulated about 30 passengers. We had waited a total of 45 minutes before the boat left "in a few minutes", which was disappointing.

     

    Once at the dock in Oia we were all confused as there were no instructions about the bus ride to town. However, we soon saw a bus approaching and it stopped to pick us up. For those with mobility issues, note that there is still a fairly steep incline one needs to climb to reach the bus. The bus ride into town is short. The bus stopped near the Oia bus station in front of the Dakoutros Bros office (next to Pizza Edwin). At the office, we registered a return time for the bus back to Fira (options were 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, and last bus at 2:00pm). Be very careful crossing the road here as the traffic is a big mess with double parked vehicles, buses left and right, etc. Of note, there are no public toilets at the office (and there are no services on the boat or the bus).

     

    In Oia, the ship's tours had already started arriving, so our goal to get off early to beat the rush was in vain. For anybody hoping to get unobstructed views of Oia, it's probably better to rush off the ship, take the cable car up to Fira, and then take the first available bus to Oia. Upon arrival in Oia walk without stopping in a southwesterly direction to the Turret Viewpoint (the classic Santorini postcard photo vantage point) before the hordes get there.

     

    We took the 11:00am bus from Oia to Fira which was on time but did not have enough air conditioning. It met with a ton of congestion as many buses and cars were trying to maneuver the overly narrow streets. The bus drops off a short walk from the upper cable car station in Fira.

     

    To get back to the Old Port tender area the options are all poor - cable car, donkey part way, or walk 25 minutes down the switchback trail. We did the latter. It was oppressively hot, the steps were slippery, and donkeys and their urine/feces were frequent obstructions everywhere. But apparently the lineup for the cable car was quite long, and personally I think that riding a donkey downhill is a bit cruel.

     

    Hope this helps someone!

     

    thanks for the inform since we are doing this port on our own it helps with planning, don't want to waste precious time

    What is the worst thing you forgot?

    in Ask a Cruise Question

    Posted

    I agree, I actually have multiple list I ck against each other.

    The worst I've forgotten was all my slacks an Capris that were hanging on a hook in den, so now I have everything in one designated "staging area " so there's less chance.

    We also had one other which kinda sorta was not our forgotten moment, picked up DH tux last minute at the dry cleaners an laid it the luggage plastic bag an all but when he took it out to wear we were surprised to find no tux pants, we were lucky that ship had pants we could rent but needless to say we don't forget to check.

     

     

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    5 things you couldnt cruise without

    in Cruise Rituals

    Posted

    Wallet with Money & Passport (going to need those to pay for things and visiting other countries)

     

    Change of clothes (especially undies)

     

    patience (for the long lines and wait) :(

     

    sense of adventure (because it vacation and anything can happen):)

     

    manners (saying "Excuse", "please" and "thank you" goes a long way);)

     

     

    I particularly liked your last comment , to often that's forgotten!

     

     

    Send from iPhone

    How long to stay in Singapore and Hong Kong, pre- and post-cruise?

    in Asia

    Posted

    Victoria Peak, Star ferry over and ten walk or that the bus to the tram.. go over to Repluse bay area and the market... shop Temple RD area at night... look ay any book in B&N for ideas. i am going to lantua island this trip..

     

    This is our first Asian cruise an can hardly wait. I'm sure I'll never see enough. Oh well like other ports we will have to go again. Lol. Linda

     

     

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    ** Balcony Ritual **

    in Cruise Rituals

    Posted

    Love love love balcony cabins no matter the location, tho I do prefer aft. I've tried many of the rituals mentioned except the nude. May need to give it a try at least once. Taking photos from aft cabins while slowly going thru Fjords of Norway absoluty breathtaking Linda

     

     

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    Names on passport/boarding docs

    in Celebrity Cruises

    Posted

    Just to confirm. Airline tickets also have to be exact? I just used first and last but our passports also have middle. I think I have a problem!!!!

     

     

    Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

     

     

    Our problem was partially due to countries we were going to, turkey in particular, they require every passport matches ships manifest an they check before they release the ship

     

     

    Send from iPhone

    Names on passport/boarding docs

    in Celebrity Cruises

    Posted

    We've had issues with my husband since he has Sr. After his name on passport an had issues in Rome because it hadn't been added to registration (on RCCL ) an took time at check in.

    But on celebrity I've had issues with reviewing our reservation and when filing our xpress pass an pre reg.... Person I spoke to at celebrity told me that there's issues in system because not all fields have place for sr., seems like it should be easy fix

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