David_S29

Well, I'm personally much more interested in vulcanology, botany, and geology than I am in picturesque strolls, so Teide it is. Thanks for your insight! Ride along the spine of the island to the Esperanza Forest, viewing the endemic flora and fauna of the volcanic island, with its pines and eucalyptus trees. This is from Celebrity's website. Yes, I can't wait to be thrilled by the "endemic" eucalyptus forests of Tenerife! Sometimes I wish that the cruise lines would try. Just a little.

I booked Concierge for my upcoming November 2025 cruise just because it was a cabin that I wanted. The difference between the cost of that and a typical veranda room was negligible for this cruise at the time of booking.

Nothing's coming up for me for my November 2025 cruise. Huh. EDIT: I just called X Customer Service. No Flash Sale prices for November 2025 Portugal-Argentina Transatlantic today.

Nothing's coming up for me. Do you need status for the flash sale beyond the basic level (first cruise on X here)? Or is this perhaps just on the US site?

Thanks, all! This has all been very helpful. 🙂

It doesn't look like either of the offered tours will allow visitors to ascend beyond Las Canadas. Anyone of the opinion that it's still worth a visit on one of these tours without being able to take the cable car?

It looks like X is offering shore excursions to both Teide and La Laguna (among others) in Tenerife in late November '25. I'd love to visit Teide, but am somewhat concerned that vistas may be obscured by rainy weather at that time of the year. Has anyone been to both locales in November, and have any recommendations as to what might be the better choice?

Any updates, @KC217? Did you end up going it alone, or booking a tour?

I think that it's simpler than that: if a cruise line can make money off of something, it will try to do so. I think a fair number of casual cruisers -- who must be the vast majority of people who go on these ships -- are going to base their purchases based on a sense of FOMO on an element of a dream vacation, instead of engaging in a rational cost/benefit analysis that could save them thousands.

The cost differential between the "All In" and "Cruise Only" options on our upcoming 2025 transatlantic voyage was $4800, or about $1200pp. This is for two adults and two teens; neither of us adults drink, so the "Classic" drinks package really isn't attractive at all. Celebrity quoted me a price of about $1000pp for the "Zero Proof" package and the "Premium" wifi for all four. That's not a huge savings, but still cheaper than the "All In" and with an internet upgrade, as well. It is, as they used to write, truly a situation of YMMV.

I checked my reservation yesterday and found out that, despite all precautions, the Celebrity agent my TA was dealing with misspelled my own last name. Not my kids' hyphenated names (which incorporates mine), but my much simpler one. I called my TA, who was great, and said she'd get it fixed. Sigh.

Thanks again, everyone! I ended up going with a "local" (translation: 200 km away) TA, and managed to secure a reservation $1500 lower than what I could find on Celebrity's website.

All great suggestions. Thanks, guys!

I don't have a TA -- I live in a small town in northern Canada far, far away from any city -- so a phone call may be the best idea. ...then again, I can just imagine the phone call that I'm going to have. They'll probably spell my own last name wrong, and I only have one!

Our children have lengthy hyphenated names. Celebrity won't let us book online using hyphens and some characters are cut off. The rep says this is fine; we've never had a problem traveling on airlines on the past. I've printed off transcripts with chats with the agent -- does anyone have any concerns with making an online booking with that assurance?

I live in a town of 7000 in the middle of the boreal forest, so I'm sure that Kushiro will seem like chaotic fun after that, or at least offer more than a stroll to the local Co-op and Canadian Tire (today's big outing). Thanks to all for sharing your experiences!

At the recommendation of a kind poster on the HAL sub-forum, I thought I'd ask here: does anyone have any suggestions for sights to see for a day trip to Kushiro in mid-October? I'd much rather walk around and see what I can instead of being stuck on a tour bus all day.

The Noordam is scheduled to stop in Kushiro on October 11 en route to its destination (for us) in Yokohama. I really don't want to take a tour, and would instead rather spend the day walking around and touring the port (and what we can of the city). Does anyone have any favourite spots or sights they can recommend?

The fires won't be diminished -- not extinguished -- until the snow falls later this month and in November. Forest fires can, and do, survive for months or years below ground in root systems, coal seams, or beat bogs, and then can flare up again when and if good conditions arise...and that's not even counting new sources of ignition. This past week is the first time since early May that there hasn't been a thick yellowish gray pall over us. Two weeks ago the air quality was so bad that visibility was nil and it was difficulty to take a deep breath indoors without gagging. 56 degrees north in northwestern Alberta.

I was seriously considering this for 2025; it would be much cheaper to visit the west African ports on this cruise than it would be to fly to them and to stay in hotels -- not to mention much safer (aside from the risk of pirates).

Any idea why? The itinerary on the "half" voyge, up the coast of West Africa, looked amazing.

454. Do I win the booby prize?