cassandra44

Need advice re the Apex Sky suite. We have a hold on deck 10 forward… is that a good choice for my hubby who uses a rollator?
Seems close to Luminae etc but for a better view we would love the cabins at the very back of the ship…but it does seem a long walk

to all the Retreat parts of the ship.
Any reason not to go ahead with the deck 10;forward option….its a transatlantic cruise in Oct-early Nov.

We would like to hire a car to take us from the ship to an address in Ealing, London.  Looking for recommendations. Last time we hired a car to take us from Heathrow we used a firm and we had an horrendous experience. The driver had been up all night, was very tired, but spoke on the cell phone constantly and almost caused a serious accident - almost hit the steel barrier dividing the motorway.  So will avoid that firm at all costs!

My travel agent tells me we can’t insure a Celebrity cruise going in October which was paid for with cruise credits from a cruise cancelled by Celebrity because of covid. If the cruise was leaving in Sept we could cancel without penalty  and get fresh credits ..so insurance would not be necessary ….but not for an Oct cruise. ..

she told me HAL has extended their protection until Dec…but Celebrity has not.

Surely it would be reasonable for Celebrity to do likewise? We hope to go in October but are now worried about losing all our $$$if we are forced to cancel because of some unforeseen event….for which we cannot take out insurance.

We had a 2020 cruise cancelled by Celebrity because of covid and were given cabin credits which we are using for a cruise in October.

Can we take out trip cancellation and interruption re those cruise credits?
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Just heard Princess has cancelled ALL cruises for 60 days..

Thank you for all the replies which were very helpful.   I think we will organize shared transportation from Ft Lauderdale and back again. That seems the best option since we arrive in the evening of Nov 30th.

3 hours ago, Alakegirl said:

There are people with much higher status than Elite who are alao being inconvenienced

Yes -  I do understand that.  It would have been preferable to delete that point in my post... it added nothing.

On 9/3/2019 at 7:47 PM, 39august said:

How will X know whether you flew in the morning of the cruise? I seriously doubt if they will be checking for proof for those who line up for their shuttles.  Luggage tags would show date, but could have already been ripped off. 

Why is Celebrity refusing to take those who come in the day before?  If we get to the airport what's the big deal??

On 9/8/2019 at 5:48 PM, 39august said:

Once again I am posting for those who need/want private shared shuttle to look at RideSAS.com. Inexpensive and reliable. We were going to change to a Miami hotel, but decided to stay with our Ft Lauderdale favorite hotel and have reservation for SAS to pick us up at 9:30 AM Dec. 1 and take us to POA for boarding. They will pick us up on debarkation day and take us to FLL. Thank goodness we have a flight after 1 PM. Be advised that there is no luggage valet  available for flights before 2 PM from FLL. I believe X should have given everyone a $50 OBC for the trouble. Not much trouble to us, but it is for so many. 

That sounds good... I wonder if you would mind telling us which hotel you use in Fort Lauderdale... and we will take a look online and book transportation on SAS to the Miami port  (around the same time).  It will save sorting through a lot of hotel info since you know the hotel and like it.  If you prefer I can give you our email address... but a bit leery of doing it on the forum.

We will also need to book a return to FLL on the 13th... we have a flight at 11:05 to Toronto.

On 8/29/2019 at 10:54 AM, Alakegirl said:

I would expect that if you are comng n a day or two early you would need to make your way to the Fort Lauderdale airport tomeet the free transfer to Miami cruise port

No... they told our agent that we couldnt get a transfer from FLL even if we went to the airport to join the group...

At the very last moment before final payment was due Celebrity notified our travel agent that our Caribbean cruise on Celebrity Silhouette leaving Dec 1 had a change of port. Instead of going from Ft Lauderdale and returning there we were now going out and in Miami!  Many of us have already booked air travel, hotels etc.   Our agent was told that Celebrity would organize transfers to and from FLL.    A few days later she told us they would not be offering us a transfer  because we were flying in the day before the cruise ( does anyone understand why it's not possible for us to join a shuttle at FLL organized by Celebrity?)  Instead they would give us $100 cabin credit... no transfers - to Miami or back to FLL.

   I have just checked and the cost of the transfers will be well over $180.... because our flight back to Toronto on the 13th is at 11:05 we have to get a cab or uber... unless we can organize a shared ride!

     There have been a lot of negative comments on the roll call  for this cruise about Celebrity's attitude towards the problem. 

(a) $100 does not cover the costs - some people have non refundable hotel payments - fortunately we didn't book yet.

(b) it's a cabin credit ... not cash.. and cant be used to pay for the transportation -  unless it's a refundable cabin credit??

(c)  very very inconvenient for everyone and I would have expected Celebrity to do more.   Yes the cruise is a long way off but we are just about to travel to Europe for another Celebritycruise and will be away for some time.

   We are close to Elite status on Celebrity but we also regularly sail on other lines - Oceania,  Viking, Princess and HAL.  Really surprised that we have been treated this way by Celebrity,

Thanks for all the advice. I have contacted Sala Blu di Roma re assistance for senior passengers on Italian trains... and they have said they can offer assistance. We don't need  wheelchairs etc... just baggage assistance given the stairs in Civitavecchia

They asked for info re names, seat numbers on our trains etc.  and I am waiting to hear further.

They responded quickly so am hoping to get this finalized very soon.  I hope the person meeting us will have some identifying badges.. given some of the dangers at rail stations.

We are on a cruise in September.  Going from Venice to Civitavecchia via Rome by train.  We are booked on a Trenitalia train - Frecciabianca which leaves at 18:27 arrives 19:14

Just heard there are serious problems for senior travellers because of having to go up and down a lot of stairs at the Civitavecchia rail station and given our  back and other health issues issues we are really bothered.

Is there any way of finding out whether our train permits easy exit from the station? If not I think we will have to change our plans and perhaps get a taxi from Rome - very expensive?

I asked for Anytime dining but we are stuck with 6 pm fixed dining which is much too early for us especially on a cruise with late departure times.

We are on the wait list for anytime dining and so fingers crossed.

Can anyone tell us which restaurant is used for fixed dining or can you choose from any of the 4 included ones?

Celebrity is popular with LGBT groups and one of their travel groups books entire Celebrity cruises...so says my hairdresser,...we too have had a Celebrity cruise cancelled and were told it was chartered by one of those groups.

we are arriving on a cruise and want to get a taxi to Pineapple Beach and back to ship in mid afternoon.

How long is the trip and cost each way for 2 passengers?

Are there taxis at the hotel for the return journey or do we need to prebook?

Thanks

Not only that, but they wash your plates, glassware and tableware with other people's also! How yuck...

I know you were making a joke because we all know that the dishes etc are washed at very high temps - so, as you are no doubt aware, there is no comparison! Clothes, on the other hand, dont usually get washed at boiling point temps!

No self laundry, but you can pre-purchase unlimited laundry for $144.00 for 2 weeks or one bag for $30.00 FILLED.

I detest the laundry...would never trust a ship laundry. We did once on Oceania and the clothes were washed much too hi temp .....and presumably they are washed with other peoples clothes. Shudder!

We are thinking of doing a transatlantic Rome-Ft Lauderdale in the fall of 2017 and have been checking out features of the new ship. Is there a self service laundry on board? We will be doing some touring before the cruise so would be nice to have one....and we do not like using the laundry service.

We have sailed several times on HAL before...the last in the Med on the Niew Amsterdam which we enjoyed very much. A bit troubled by some of the negative reviews of the Koningsdam (we would miss the Promenade deck) but the itinerary is a good one so have to weight up pros and cos.

Does anyone know if the current April 2016 Oceania Riviera cruise has had any Norovirus outbreaks? We are scheduled to cruise on this ship in early May and would like to know how the current cruise is going. We know about the other outbreaks, which is concerning, of course. Hoping the cycle has broken. Thank you!

We have just returned from the Riviera transatlantic ending in Barcelona. To our knowledge there were no problems and certainly no code red. The only thing we observed was that early in the cruise some crew members with masks were gathered outside the mens washroom near the theatre and it appeared someone had been sick. However nothing developed.... everything was just fine and we had a thoroughly enjoyable cruise.

Thanks to Boynton for those great photos of the Riviera! Looks as if it and the Marina are very similar.

Do they still have a happy hour? We havent purchased a drinks package and with our Canadian dollar so low it would be nice!

Nice to see that this thread seems to be coming to a close. Enough said. Good healthy cruising from now on. :):):)

Some of us who are about to go on the transatlantic are still very concerned. The good news is that we haven't heard anything in the past few days but the bad news is that while checking another thread I came across a post that said there were several cases on the Riviera in early March after the ship was sanitized but the numbers did not warrant a report to CDC.... so it looks as if there have been cases for a large part of Feb and March.

Anyway all we can do now is to keep fingers crossed...and bring plenty of wipes.

Some posts suggested that noro occurrences are under-reported because a lot of passengers dont want to incur huge medical bills especially when no medication is effective and the only solution is to wait it out plus hydration. If they dont seek medical help then I assume no one would be aware that someone was sick?

I have tried to avoid using the laundry bundles....not sure what happens...do your clothes get mixed in with a lot of others?

Do they actually pay any attention to washing instructions....as in warm not hot water for example?

I know that sounds pernickety but I'm a very fussy washer and use different cycles etc etc. and would probably just wait till I got home.

We were on the Celebrity infinity last year on a south american cruise and there was no self service laundry on board so just did hand washing.

Thanks! That sounds very hopeful! We were so looking forward to a lot of relaxing days at sea and it's been quite stressful hearing about the frequency of the noro outbreaks.

Your post is re-assuring!