AKN

Don’t know about hook-ups, but wanted to tell you that we just got off Celebrity Solstice, a veranda cabin, and the TV was not moveable. It could not be angled toward the bed. If not sitting in front of TV, you cannot see what’s on the screen. We were told it had become a safety issue so they put rods into the wall brackets so they cannot be moved. On Celebrity Silhouette veranda cabin in October…those were still moveable to angle toward the bed. I hope it’s just an anomaly, but fear it may be “a thing.” —Paula

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Southampton from Oct 17-20, 2022. We walked out of the hotel with our luggage, turned right, and then continued walking to the terminal a few yards away. It was just that easy. I'm sorry I can't say relative distance, other than it was close, very very close. A man came out of the terminal baggage area, nearest the hotel, and relieved us of our luggage, so we didn't even have to lug it all the way along to the main entrance. Best and most efficient embarkation we have ever had. The hotel is clean and modern looking. One minor thing that happened was that there was a long line when we departed, so I dropped the key cards on the front desk and we left. The person who checked us in said we could do that. Well, I got a charge on my credit card that shouldn't have been there, but I didn't discover it until we were enroute on Silhouette and the hotel's solve was to call them. It wasn't worth the $22 to try to figure it out. We paid for two breakfasts, and I'm pretty sure they thought we ate breakfast on the third day so they charged us for it. Their in-and-out control of the restaurant is not very good. No matter. I would stay there again. It was nice and convenient.

This has been a fascinating discussion. We booked Celebrity cruises from 1. San Juan (exempt from PVSA) to Ft. Lauderdale; 2. FLL to L.A. (Panama cruise with a far-distant port stop of Cartagena); 3. Los Angeles to Vancouver, BC; 4. Vancouver to Seward, Alaska (our home). Several months passed and our travel agent called to say she had a cruise representative on the other line and we needed to decide NOW which segment, 3 California or 4 Alaska, that we would cancel. They were pressuring her to convince us to cancel Alaska, but she knew that would be a non-starter. The other option they offered was for us to travel round trip from Vancouver to Seward. Again, that was no good. The remaining option offered as a possibility was that we disembark in Victoria (the port stop previous to Vancouver) thereby interrupting “the trip.” We did not want the extra expense and hassle of taking the bus or ferry to Vancouver and also paying for a hotel. We quickly checked out other cruise lines from Vancouver to Seward or Whittier, but none of them left that day, so all the options included an extra hotel stay in Vancouver. We canceled California 3 and decided to visit family in Nevada while the ship makes its way from L.A. to Vancouver, then we will rejoin in Vancouver and sail home. I admit by this point in the decision-making process my heels were dug in and I wasn’t changing the segment home for anything. LOL. In later posting with a Canadian on the Cruise Critic roll-call, they described a similar experience, but they took advantage of the “opportunity” to make the Vancouver to Alaska segment round-trip instead of one-way. I guess a part of me sees the urgent phone call as a ploy to get us to buy an additional cruise. Another part of me does not understand how a trip from San Juan (exempt) to Seward, Alaska can be considered in violation. If the cruise had been sold as one cruise instead of four cruises, this would be no problem at all. Or even three cruises. After all, the Panama segment 2, stops in a far-distant port between FLL and L.A. So again, is it the marketing department creating this problem? I wish I had earlier thought of writing Celebrity to make the argument that we were starting our trip at an exempt port and asking for an exception, but I’m over it now and onto checking out wine tours, etc. Also, the price on segment 3 California has gone up significantly, so even with an exception to book us as a single cruise from Puerto Rico to Alaska, it would cost more. And there are probably other reasons that I don’t know about as to why they might not make an exception. Paula

We bring many of the things mentioned here like magnet clips and clothespins and OTC medicines. I like the idea of a tiny nightlight for the bathroom. We learned our lesson the hard way to bring a small, yet sturdy, wine bottle opener and a couple Rabbit-style bottle stoppers. Paula

In March I bought advanced tickets from Heathrow to Paddington for our October trip. It was 5.50 pounds per person ($7.04 USD on the day I bought them), as ROWSE said. The ticket says Fixed Day Single Standard.