Cleo21

Even if it's crowded I think you can have a nice day just walking about and looking at the shopping, quaint streets, maybe grabbing a Baklava, sitting by the water for a bit. There is a nice little chapel to look at too. We sat in a restaurant not too far from where the transfer dropped us and had dessert and a Gyros. We had a ships transfer to the town, and then walked about on our own. Pack your patience and I'm sure you will be fine.

We did a ship excursion for Santorini, usually we do private excursions. It just seemed easier and quicker to get to the main sights and it worked out great. Yes there are steps everywhere but I seem to remember them being broken up quite nicely so you were never walking up a huge flight of stairs in town. We went to a winery with amazing views, then took a brief walking tour to see the beautiful white washed houses, then had free time to look around a bit. We shopped and sat at a restaurant looking over the caldera, which was so lovely, just had a drink. We went in the month of September, a few years back, and I don't remember lots of crowds. I think we were driven to the point where the tour started, near the winery, and I believe we took the cable car down, all arranged with the shore excursion.

Answering my own question post cruising on the Ascent. Yes, the seafood buffet is the last day at sea, at lunch. It was very good with chilled shrimp, crawdads, fried calamari and tempura seafood, three kinds of ceviche (cod, shrimp, scallops), beautiful red snapper and other fish, mussels. The ceviches were not the best I've had, more like a seafood salad, but very acceptable. It is a bit of a zoo, with the chilled station line up starting half hour pre buffet opening. I found the station with crawdads and chilled shrimp settled down quickly though, so you might want to start with the cooked sea food, it had almost no line up to start with. savor it and then move on to the chilled station. It's also chocolate fondue day, and that line up is slow because staff serve you (which is fine by me, it could be a real mess otherwise). I didn't see any hording really, maybe I just didn't notice it. I actually found many people were pretty selective about what they would eat.

We will be in Juneau in mid June, taking a 2.5 hour Mendenhall Glacier Excursion offered by the cruise ship. We'll have about 5 hours left over to look around after the excursion. Are there any sights, shopping, restaurants that are walkable from the cruise terminal? Don't want to do another excursion but would love to walk around a bit. Thanks for any info!

We will be in Ketchikan in mid June. Our ship docks around 2pm and from 2:30 - 5:30 pm we have a shore excursion booked with Celebrity: Rainforest Sanctuary, Eagles and Totems. Apparently they take us out to Herring Cover Trail for a walk in the rainforest, stopping to see a Totem Sculptor, and then on to the Animal Sanctuary. We hope to see bears, eagles and other wild life if the conditions are good. My question is, if they drop us back at the cruise terminal at 5:30 pm, would we have time to walk around in town a bit, before we leave at 8:30 pm (which may mean all aboard is 7:30pm) Is 2 hours long enough to be able to get into town for a quick look around? Thanks for any info!

Can anyone recommend a Hong Kong Hotel, close to the port and sights and shopping? I am currently looking at the Intercontinental, but don’t know if that is in the best location? We usually stay in 4 * moderately priced places but we would pay more if necessary to get a good location. Also, any recommendations for Airport to Hotel Transfer services?

Yes I have this problem too and only with celebrity’s website. It’s a pain!

I wonder if anyone can tell me how many formal/chic nights would be on a 7 N Celebrity Cruise (Ascent) and which nights they would likely be? If you are booked into specialty dining on a Chic night, is the menu enhanced?

Does anyone know if Celebrity supplies the Visa’s for Vietnam ports on board? Or are they included with Celebrity Shore Excursions?

Next year we will have a port day in Koh Samui, 7am-5pm. I'm just starting to look at this port and think about what we might do. There's a Chaweng On Your Own option offered by Celebrity. It seems safe, half day shopping and beach nearby (but I've heard the beach is not too nice, full of garbage?). I also know you can just walk off into Nathan Town, again shopping and beach nearby. That sounds great but we'd also like to see, perhaps, the Big Buddha, Wat Plei Laem, maybe the Secret Buddha Garden. I'm wondering if it might be a safe place to take a Taxi from the Pier, and if so how much would it cost to see these sights, have the driver wait and return us to the pier? Also, another option may be a Day Pass at a really nice hotel where we could also get massages or Wellness Treatments. Anybody know of such places? Viator has a Wellness Tour that sounds good but it is expensive and quite long, more like something one might do if staying at a resort. Any ideas or resources are very welcome!

Never had a sand fly bite in Aruba, and have been many times. My ankles and lower legs were covered in bites in Jamaica! You should be ok

We are on the Ascent soon. It looks like a 20% gratuity is automatically added to every, very expensive, service. This includes the Thermal Pass where you really are not getting a service, but using a facility. I would expect the bare minimum standard of keeping the facility clean would not actually warrant a tip, but still 20% is added onto the reservation. Spa costs have gotten crazy! We have cruised a lot and I used to be able to book a pass every cruise, or a service as a treat, but really it's now outpriced for me. Especially since you must listen to a hard sell along with your service. As well, on the Ascent site many of the nicer spa services seem to be unavailable on the ship, despite it being a new ship. They are not "sold out" just "unavailable". We love spa and may have to look at resorts as an option in the future when we want to pamper ourselves, as opposed to cruises.

My husband saw an advertisement for the Ascent that showed a seafood buffet night at the Oceanview Cafe. It pictured lovely fresh seafood towers. Is this a routine thing and if so, anyone know when it happens?