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

1 hour ago, Shipswap said:

We are sailing with Celebrity in May out of Southampton. We are researching pre cruise  hotels nearby.

Does Celebrity have a dedicated dock? What nearby hotels would be recommended? Any insights are most welcome.

 Thank you everyone!

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

23 hours ago, ROWSE said:

I bought advanced tickets from Paddington Station to Heathrow for our upcoming May trip.  It was at least 90 days from trip and it was a great price of 5.50 pounds per person.  The closer to travel date you buy the higher the price.  

Our tickets are for a certain date but no set time at all.  Can be used any time on that date.  

 

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.

I want to tell you what happened regarding our activity arrangements in Cartagena, Colombia on 30 November 2021. Perhaps this story will help others to make a better decision.

I booked an activity independently online for my husband and me. Neither of us speak Spanish. The activity was a coffee tasting. Transportation was not provided. The instructions said we should plan to arrive at the restaurant at 10:00 am. The tour was reserved, but payment was not made until after the cancelation deadline 24 hours prior. This activity was not booked as a shore excursion for cruisers, it was simply an activity that anyone could purchase.

I checked a map for the restaurant address compared to the cruise port and it did not seem too far. It seemed likely that a shuttle bus would be provided as there looked like a lot of industrial port activity in the area. It looked like a shuttle bus would get us even closer and I wondered if it would be within walking distance.

I did not have Colombian pesos. A Google search indicated that UBER now operates in Cartagena after a period of time when they were not permitted. Using UBER, I wouldn’t need COPs. The UBER instructions on payment exceptions were only given in Spanish, but the ship’s loyalty club hostess translated that page to say that we may have to transfer USD into COP on the app, then apply the COP towards paying UBER. Since it would be done on the UBER app it didn’t seem like a big problem. Upon ship’s arrival, the UBER app said the travel price from our location to the restaurant was 9,300 COPs, about 2.50 USD according to my currency-conversion app.

There was a shuttle bus from the ship to the cruise terminal. The cruise terminal is an activity event unto itself. There is a very large gift store, a zoo of sorts, and an aviary. There was no Tourist Info booth. You must traverse the entire facility before you reach the taxi stand. We kept following signs that said “Exit” and/or “Taxi.” The clear goal is to keep you engaged in the terminal complex.

At the taxi location we were rushed with offers to take a tour to Old Town for 20 USD. We tried to communicate that we simply needed a ride to the restaurant 2.5 miles away. I had written the name and address on a piece of paper. We stepped past the taxi stand into a parking lot/turnaround, but there was nothing there, just the parking lot. We could not see the street to determine if there were other taxis or a sidewalk leading away. A security guard shooed us back to the taxis. We tried again to speak with the taxi guy, “How much to take us to this place?” The answer: 20 USD. One way. Then, “15 USD.” Then, “How much will you pay?” I said, “10 USD because I can get an UBER for under 3 USD.” No, he wasn’t interested in 10 USD.

We went into the gift store to talk with one of the personnel whose shirt said, “Port of Cartagena.” She kept saying that I would need the UBER app to use UBER. Finally, I communicated that I had the app, but I did not know how to get out of the terminal area into Cartagena to be picked up. I asked for directions. She and her coworkers pointed us to the taxi stand. My husband tried stepping through some bushes into the street or driveway behind, just to see what it looked like out there, but he got a finger-wagging by security. The only way out of there was in a taxi.

By this time, we were already late for the coffee tasting. We decided that, even were we to get a taxi ride to the restaurant, we were in danger of not easily getting back to the ship. I’m sure that the activity operator would help us navigate it, but we had also been sure we could simply catch an UBER. Our assumptions had been wrong, so we abandoned the trip and lost the 140 USD paid for the activity.

I realized the risk when I booked the activity. I left a little too much undecided. I accept that. It was far too warm and humid for us to walk. On the first leg of our cruise, most ports required the purchase of a ship’s shore excursion if a guest wanted to get off the ship. This Cartagena stop was on the second leg and we had been informed that all port stops were “open” for independent travel.

I leave you to your own conclusions as to what happened. It could have simply been miscommunication, mostly with our lack of language skills. It could have been that independent travel was not permitted without using a Cartagena taxi. That was the case in St. Kitts the week prior. The guests’ choice of excursion was a ship-provided tour or walking to the taxi operators at the end of the pier and using them. There were no other choices. But we were advised of that by the cruiseline prior to our arrival in St. Kitts. We were not informed of this rule regarding Cartagena.

A cruiseline cannot pivot quickly. I get that. Contracts with vendors and governments should not be subject to such last-minute changes, but this is the Covid world now and things are pretty topsy-turvy. Plans for port stops can change suddenly and it’s completely out of the cruiseline’s control. Our back-to-back cruises spanned three weeks, so I feel lucky that this didn’t happen to us more than the one time at Cartagena.