Miss Vickie

Radiance class ships are the closest to both the S and M class. The layout is very similar to the S class, the size is identical to the M class. The Radiance class is our favorite class of Royal ships. Vision class is close size-wise. 

We sailed Eurodam to Alaska last month. Lovely ship, great crew, enjoyed the entertainment, food as good as Celebrity’s. The ship is bout the same size as X’s M class ships. We’d sail HAL again for the right itinerary. We’ve done both our Alaska cruises on HAL and were booked for a Mediterranean itinerary we haven’t seen on any other line, which got cancelled by Covid. It hasn’t shown back up yet, and we’re waiting for X and HAL to bring out their 2024 Med itineraries to compare.

On 10/14/2022 at 3:31 PM, cndcruiser65 said:

We just booked this cruise for February 2024 and am also interested in any information regarding these ports - Trinidad and Tobago.  

We booked this cruise with our friends when it first showed up. After 25 southern Caribbean cruises, it’ll be our first time to T&T, too. There’s already a roll call.

On 10/10/2022 at 10:06 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

If you are concerned about OnPoint- I used them in 2021 - then use your test with Rapidtestandtrace.com.   Used them in August of this year.  Rapidtestandtrace.com uses Microsoft Teams app..

FWIW  OnPoint reported doing over 5 million tests.  Much like Celebrity, not everyone happy.

This was an epic fail, even if not of their making. We were lucky because we had an extra day built in. However, if you’re going on a cruise which still requires testing (I’m not sure if any itineraries do), and don’t have that leeway, it could be a problem.

On 10/5/2022 at 6:42 PM, Arizona Wildcat said:

Think you misunderstood that this is an old thread.  Testing rules have changed on most cruises.  Cruises over 9 days mostly require only that you test yourself then take a picture of the test strip.  Pretty much the honor system.

Our September 24 cruise to Alaska required testing, it was a requirement by the Canadian government (which they dropped ont October 1st). But you’re right, didn’t realize it was an older thread.

I’d stay away from OnPoint, despite the hack issues.

We paid for and scheduled testing for September 22, before we left home to fly out for a 9/24 cruise. When we tried to get into the Zoom, we got an invalid link notification. When we tried calling customer service we ended up in queue and got hung up on, more than once, likely because they were being flooded by calls. I emailed their support line, and got a bounce back indicating they would get back to me. They never did. When their system saw we “missed” our appointment it send a second Zoom link, which also gave an invalid link response.
 

Luckily, we were flying to our embarkation city 2 days in advance so we could spend a day at Mt Ranier National Park the day before we boarded our cruise, so I then paid for and scheduled tests through Rapid Test and Trace, which we successfully completed from our hotel room the following morning before we went to the park.

When we got home a week and a half later, I contacted OnPoint, by both phone and email to customer support, to get a refund for the tests we couldn’t complete. The phone rep told me their charges were non-refundable. I pointed out we were not able to test, although we tried, and asked to speak to a supervisor. She said she would open a case and a supervisor would call me. That was on October 3rd. I never heard from a supervisor or from my email to support. I finally just disputed the charge with the credit card. At the very least I would have expected a supervisor to actually call me, explain their issue and say, yes, we’ll issue a refund.

We used rapid test and trace about two weeks ago, successfully, to board a cruise to Alaska. I booked a proctored on line testing session, using free tests we took with us, and tested from our Seattle hotel room. It worked perfectly. 

We did this excursion in 2017, when we were on Volendam. We got transferred to the excursion boat near the fiord, and met up with Volendam in Juneau. We loved it.

21 hours ago, kochleffel said:

 

Did you mean a 737? The runway at Dawson City is 5,003 feet long. Most versions of the 747 require at least twice that.

 

Dawson City can accept 737 charters. The runway is short for a 737 and that would lead to a weight limit. The cruise charters are run by Air North, which flies only 737 and ATR-42 aircraft.

 

You’re right, it was a 737 charter.

4 hours ago, eggemon said:

Right there with the OP… different tour, but the same problem…

 

I’d love for the 50 pounds to be wrong, but I am pretty sure it is correct (small planes, short runways, etc.).

 

We are doing Y1L in July, and definitely have concerns about luggage. We can probably keep within the 50 pounds (plus ONE 13 pound carry on) for the land portion – not that it will be easy (CPAP machines, etc.) – but we will definitely want more clothes, etc. for the cruise (and our continuing vacation after the cruise).

 

As I understand the material from HAL, we cannot use the “Join Me Onboard” program due to customs regulations.

 

I have wondered if, before we head off on our trip, we could ship some luggage to our hotel in Anchorage and meet up with it there… has anyone here tried that? Any other thoughts about how we can connect with more luggage after we complete the restrictive part of our land tour? 

We took the flight from Dawson City to Fairbanks, they used a 747. It was several years ago, and I don’t remember the weight limit.

On 1/22/2022 at 11:23 PM, MarEll1 said:

Thanks for your response. I misread the info on the website - it is for unvaccinated passengers only - I missed that as I assumed everyone had to be vaccinated.

On our cruise 100% of the passengers were vaccinated.

We were in St. Maarten several days into our cruise, first week in January, day 6, I think. We were not tested, and were allowed to disembark at will. 

For Antigua, check out www.Adventureantigua.com.  We’ve taken their excursions many times. They do a superb job.  In St. Croix we enjoy going to Christenstad. There’s a fort there to explore, a unit of the US National Park system, stores to explore, and nice places for lunch. Our favorite shops areJan Mitchell’s glass shop and IB Designs.  

On 11/3/2021 at 5:12 AM, rachiem said:

Thank you. We've booked the extreme tour as it's the last stop on the cruise. We can have 2 days onboard to chill after that.

You’ll love it. The boat is a blast (if you sit up front expect to get wet), the rays are cool, no one else takes you to the Pillars of Hercules to snorkel. The lunch is really good, and Eli’s crews are terrific!

As for Grenada, I think it's still wait and see.  Reflection is doing its first Caribbean cruise of the year right now.  I don't think Celebrity has addressed Grenada because they haven't prepared for it yet.  I'm taking await and see.  Right now, there's only one excursion listed for Dominica, and that's an island where ship tours are required.  We have a close friend there, too, and would love to spend the day with him, but that may be a day we stay on board...  I have no desire to go jump off Titou Gorge again with a crowd of people.

Celebrity is now allowing on your own tours in Antigua!  We've booked Eli's new Adventure Islands tour.  Can't wait!

On 10/29/2021 at 3:11 PM, rachiem said:

We are looking at this for Feb...just really worried as the ship leaves at 5pm...I believe the tour finishes at 4pm.

Still undecided whether to opt for the Extreme or Eco.

They have confirmed that if rules changed and we can not take the trip we would be refunded our deposit

We’ve known, and toured with, Eli since he started his company in 2001, all of his tours multiple times, including a discontinued one (haven’t done the private charter yet). He makes sure you don’t miss the ship. We’ll be booking his newest tour for our January cruise.

1 hour ago, baldilocks said:

 

We took this cruise because of the itinerary. Several months later, Royal had almost the same cruise at about $1000 less. We can't switch the deposit from Celebrity to Royal. We will try Celebrity, but it sounds like Royal from now on where I figure normal everyday people cruise. Celebrity just seems so snobbish.

 

Hi. We’re normal, ordinary people who made the switch from Royal to Celebrity years ago, after having having enough cruises on Royal to put us in one of the higher Crown and Anchor levels. We cruise in either veranda or concierge cabins, never in suites on either line. I looked at this thread because the title intrigued me.  I did want to tell you, though, that we’ve met very normal, nice people on Celebruty, and far fewer snobs or people who expressed entitlement than we ever did on Royal.  

We chose not to purchase the meal package and enjoyed local restaurants.  

We were on voyage 16 of Serenade of the Seas and experienced a human-error created list that emptied the pools, knocked people off their chairs, and closed the casino, every bar and the liquor store due to falling and broken bottles and glass wear.  The water from the forward (solarium pool), went down an elevator shaft, starting a small fire at the bottom (quickly controlled).  It was our last day on board, the sea day from St. Lucia back to Puerto Rico, and friends of ours had packed their suitcases and put them on their balcony to give themselves more room in the cabin before they put them in the hall.  The water from the aft pool went over the side of the ship, and soaked their luggage.  

We were at early dinner in the MDR, lower level, deck 4, right in the center, a very stable location.  We had sailed this route numerous times on other ships, and when the ship started turning in the middle of dinner we knew that wasn't right.  The turn kept getting tighter and the speed increasing.  People on the "high" side of the dining room as the ship listed lost everything off their table, a few fell off their chairs.  The cutlery and dishes on the marble serving stations all fell off.  Our table, being in the middle lost nothing.  Not even a drop of water out of the glasses or the bud vase in the center of the table.  

There is a required steering test that has to be done before a ship enters a US port.  Typically it is done at low speed and can't even be noticed, unless, like us, you have an aft balcony and can see the change in the wake from the azipods being moved.  In this case the person on the bridge handling the test demonstrated what happens if you forget to slow down from 16-17 knots (this was back in the day when they did sail bys to Montserrat, St. Kitt and Saba on the way back from St. Lucia, requiring a higher cruising speed to do the sail bys and make it to San Juan on schedule).  The list wasn't as severe as Crown Princess', about 12 degrees, according to a friend in a position to know - no life boats were impacted, and I think the only injury was a broken finger when someone's finger got caught in a door.  The captain and crew handled it well.  The captain came on the PA immediately and frequently to keep us updated.  The crew in the dining room kept moving, reassuring people and picking things up.  It didn't last as long as it felt, and when the ship stabilized our waiter came by and said, "so you're having dessert, right?"  There were some people who rushed back to the state rooms, grabbed their life jackets and wore them the rest of the evening, even though no call to lifeboat stations was made. It was an eventful day - half way through our sail by of Montserrat, we had to head back to Guadeloupe to meet a helicopter, which landed on our helideck to to do a medical evac, then turn around and head back north.

We sailed Serenade 7 or 8 times after that, and have continued to said Southern itineraries, always in an aft balcony cabin.  After that episode they moved the time of the steering test to mid-afternoon and definitely slow down.  Because the island sail bys are no longer done, it's rare to hit speeds of 16-17 knots on that sea day, anyway.  

12 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We were supposed to be in Iceland on a cruise (Reflection) this week for our 40th wedding anniversary.  Of course cancelled.  We have now decided to go there for perhaps a week or even two weeks on a land-based tour.  It is too beautiful to rush through it on a short cruise.  So we are actively planning and looking at land-driving tours.  Looking for recommendations.

I’ll be following for recommendations, too.  We’ve gotten as far in our planning as basing ourselves in Reykjavik and renting a car. Exactly where we’ll be going is yet to be determined.

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Hi -- we (my friend and I) also had some trouble locating a good guide for the site as we wanted more than just a casual tour. We eventually located two guides that were both well recommended. One is Dr. Ols Lafe, but he is in demand for other sites too and is based in Durres, so he may or may not be available.

 

Dr. Ols Lafe

Director
Center for the Development of Ancient and Medieval Albanian Heritage
University "Aleksandër Moisiu" 
L.1, Rruga e Currilave, Durrës, Albania

Email: olslafe@uamd.edu.al
Email: olslafe@hotmail.com

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, given the results) he was not available for our date, but he recommended to us someone who had actually excavated at the site, and works there as the Supervisor of Finds. Her name is Erjona Qilla and I cannot stress how DELIGHTFUL she was as a guide. We had a slight hitch in the morning and had to shorten our tour (which was originally to include some of the outlying sites -- Butrint is quite huge), but in the end we had a thorough tour of the area within the archaeological park, including more than a few things not on the regular tours. 

 

Erjona Qilla
Archaeologist
Butrint National Park
Saranda, Albania
erjona.qilla@gmail.com

rona_al@yahoo.ca

 

I think you would be more than happy with either of these as your guide. Our tour with her was on May 24, 2018. If you contact her please say hello from Jo Ann and Cynthia.

Thank you for your response!

We love visiting National Parks, so if cruising continues not to be an option we’ll do more of that.  We’d also love to return to Hawaii and see more than we were able to see on our cruise, including islands we didn’t get to. We’ve never been to Iceland on a cruise, but plan to visit it as a land vacation.  

On 6/27/2020 at 11:58 AM, cruisemom42 said:

After a Med cruise in 2005 I went back and spent a significant amount of time in Egypt and Turkey (two separate trips) once I realized, having been there, that it was safe enough to travel there as a woman alone.

 

I have also returned to Tunisia as the result of a cruise stop there for a much longer tour of Roman sites.

 

On the other hand, my Baltics cruise did not really inspire me with the desire to return anywhere for a longer visit..

 

I suppose one place I would consider visiting more in depth as a result of a stop in Sarande (and on the strength of the Roman ruins at Butrint), it would be Albania.

 

As for the US -- no real interest. I'll just stay home and bank money until international travel reopens....

 

 

I hope you can help. We’re booked on a cruise in 2021 with a stop in Sarande.  That was one of the reasons we chose that particular itinerary. However, I’m not getting responses from any tour operators I’ve contacted. Who did you use?  Thanks!

We did the Y2L, double Denali, and chose not to get the meal plan.  We enjoyed finding places to eat, only ate at the hotel three times - once in Denali, which was good, once in Fairbanks when we got caught in a torrential downpour when we went out for a walk and didn't feel like going back out once we got dried off (not great meal), and one breakfast, I forget where, which was downright awful.  We found great places to eat on our own everywhere else, though, including the strip mall across from the Denali resort.  We'd do it that way again.