Cruising-along

I was able to book online for 3 nights, got email confirmations for all, and yet every correspondence we have gotten from Celebrity and see online, only 2 of the 3 show up. :confused: It is puzzling. We'll take our email confirmations and hope for the best!

Stuck with some table mates you don't like for the whole cruise? Forced to go dinner at the same time regardless if you ate a light/early or large/late lunch? Not able to make a last minute change of plans without being discourteous to your table mates? Thank heavens for Open seating! ;)

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Amen! We love open dining!

Yes, I'm checking on my neighbors. I stick my head around the divider or maybe even stand on a chair to look over:rolleyes:. I can smell it. You do not need to look over.

Not only that, besides smelling it, you can see their reflection in the balcony glass. No need to stick your head around. ;)

Excellent! Love your review and the comparisons. Yes, it's a shock to find that Celebrity doesn't have a decent laundry program for new cruisers on their ships. :( But I agree, their Open Dining is great. You can even book your table before the cruise if you want to. (I just found this out) :)

And "Seattle" is a city, not HAL. :p

Seriously, it doesn't bother me at all, we all know what the person means. :)

I see that you posted your question on the Celebrity board too, and you're getting a lot of good answers there and here.

We have sailed both lines and like both for different reasons. It was hard for us to jump to another line too, so I know what you're talking about.

The only big negative I have with Celebrity, as a new cruiser with them, is that they do not have a decent laundry program. HAL has them beat hands down in that area. No self laundries on any of their ships, no laundry deals for the length of your cruise, and very very rarely any "by the bag" offers either. Until you are a higher level cruiser with them (sorry I don't remember what level it is, but we aren't there) your only option is by the piece. We were shocked to find this out on our first cruise with them. We've gotten spoiled with HAL!

It may not be a biggie to you, but for us 14 days of laundry by the piece really adds up. :) Thankfully we will have a big OBC on our next cruise on Celebrity this summer, and will send things out and do a few things in the sink! :D

Thank you all for your responses. The Celebrity website has been very frustrating but we did call Celebrity and was able to make a reservation in Scotland.

:o Oops, I see I wrote we booked Lubeck on Your Own -- wrong cruise, that's our HAL cruise (excursions easily booked online) ;) We did book Loch Lomond and Inverary Castle by calling Celebrity.

Glad you were able to get what you wanted. I agree, Celebrity's website is frustrating and maddening.

Hello,

 

I've been looking at the October 18th Ryndam sailing out of Istanbul and the itinerary has Egypt scheduled for the 24th and 25th.

 

Does anyone know if HAL has been stopping in Egypt recently? I'm a bit surprised to see Egypt still listed as a ports of call considering the current situation in Egypt.

 

I lost Egypt for two extra days in Israel on a 2011 Celebrity cruise, so I'm looking at these Egypt stops with a hairy eyeball from previous experience.

 

If it was up to me I'd prefer to call on on alternate ports, but I realize many may have booked this cruise specifically for Egypt, which I totally respect.

 

Anyone have any opinions on the chances of HAL keeping Egypt for October?

 

Ben

I think we were on the same cruise, Celebrity Silhouette October 2011? We had canceled a HAL cruise because they took Egypt off their sailings, only to have Celebrity do the same thing. ;) So yes, I wouldn't count on it happening. Looking back, having 4 days in Israel was amazing. I did feel bad though for DS and BIL who had never been to Egypt.

We got to Egypt on the Rotterdam in 2006 and would love to get back, but it doesn't look like that will happen any time soon.

It will be interesting to see how this works out for Carnival. Might be hard to match up excursions exactly. On the other hand, tours on the pier are often cheaper as vendors try to fill empty seats.

 

DaveOKC

It will be very hard to match up excursions exactly. Often the private tours don't include things like entry fees and meals, besides some of the more obvious differences.

Please add me to the September 28, 2014, 5-day coastal, Vancouver-San Diego on the Westerdam. Thank you!!

Any ideas for Greenock? The local tour companies are all booked for the day that we are in port and Celebrity Infinity's tours must be all booked as none are showing available on their website. Thank you.

Celebrity's tours may not all be booked. I see that you're going in June. We're going in July, and even though the website shows only 1 excursion, there are 5. We called Shore Excursions and they're having a problem with the website as usual. :rolleyes:

The woman sent us the whole Shore Excursion brochure for our cruise. We're going to try to book the "Lubeck on your own" if we can ever get through to them on the phone again. :rolleyes: Good luck whatever you decide!

Sammy goose' date=' I love your list! My favorite thing about HAL is the "leave one, take one " shelf in the library. I hate to carry books home after I'm finished reading them, and I have found a few treasures that were worth carrying home. Our last cruise (6 weeks, not on HAL) did not have this, and I was very disappointed!

 

Barbara M. In NH[/quote']

 

Oh I love that too, and use it on every cruise. Even if I don't find a book to take, I always leave books. I hate to carry them home too.

I guess life is too good in Seattle for IT folks to work at night or on a weekend like the rest of us!!?? :rolleyes: LOL

Or maybe just this week, with the gorgeous summer weather we're having ;):D

Hmm, I wonder if this means my final payment won't happen today :confused::D

People I have met on roll calls have become my face book friends too. Lasting friendships over the years, we get together whenever we can and communicate daily. I don't cruise to make friends, but I have made good, lasting friendships because of cruising. ;)

oops - I am so glad you did too. I would have been struggling to find that itinerary. And scratching my head:p

 

thank you - I shall correct that asap:D

We would have both been confused. I just happened to look because I saw your other thread today. :D

Thanks again!

Oops, so glad I looked here, my cruise on the Eurodam will be 27 July 2014, not 07 July. 12-day Baltic Adventure :)

Thank you so much!

To update....the mini traveler has set sail from South Hampton as I type...he is a beautiful child,healthy and happy.(9 mons)...Grandmamma (my co worker) was so excited to be visiting Europe for the first time...wishing them safe travels , wonderful memories...will let you know how they managed this cruise with an infant.

Six adults to one infant...at the very least the ratio is in their favor.;)

Thanks for the update! You are right, the ratio is definitely in their favor. I imagine they will have a wonderful time! Our grandbaby (one year old next week) just returned from a sailing trip in the Caribbean (not cruise) and all went well. There were 7 adults and 2 babies on that trip. :) His cousin, who is 6 months older, went to England last year -- so it can be done, just not sure I would do it :D

Had there been a price increase since the initial booking? Otherwise I see no reason for this either. :(

You can pick the type of bread it comes on.

Thanks, I saw somewhere in this thread that it comes on white bread. Makes sense that you could choose. In that case DH would probably try it -- not me though. Now a BLT, that sounds great. :D

I am not a fan of club sandwiches, they have 50% too much bread. Give me a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich or a ham and Swiss cheese on rye.

I agree, no fan of them. DH likes club sandwiches, but even he wouldn't order one if it had white bread.

I have never seen that on any ship -- anywhere.

It was only one cruise, but it was every day. DH can't remember which ship it was either, but it had to be 1-2 years ago. Maybe they were doing a trial run, I loved it and wish they would have continued.

Thank you Marney! I guess I was way off in my guess about the name :o

I really hate weak coffee. Usually I start my day with a specialty coffee from the Explorers Café. On the days I can't do that, I can get by with that first cup from the MDR, room service or Lido, but don't drink as much of it. :p

There was one cruise we took, trying to remember which one. It may have been the Maasdam east coast/Canada a couple years ago. They had urns of coffee marked "bold" and that was great. I haven't seen it on any ship since. :(

I'm so sorry you had this experience. It really does sound bad, and I would not be happy either!

We've only had one time when we had to speak to our cabin steward about getting our cabin done earlier in the day. It was early in the cruise and I wanted to nip it in the bud. It was afternoon before it was clean and we're early risers, up and out of the cabin early. His first reaction was "well, everyone wants their cabin done early" (which I didn't agree with but didn't argue). Thinking that our request wouldn't be granted, I was pleasantly surprised that for the rest of the cruise our cabin was done up early every day.

I'm a firm believer in talking nicely to the source first, and then, only then, going up the chain. ;)

We have sailed the Maasdam only once, 2 years ago. Our stewards were excellent, but the front desk left a lot to be desired. Lots of problems that cruise. :(

Is it at all possible that security confiscated her deadly :rolleyes: scissors prior to her boarding and then that led to her naming her newest ship “Meandam”? :confused:;)

Good idea, but she always has the names picked out well before sailing date.

I know this is her last cruise of the Caribbean season and she's unhappy about that, I don't know if that has anything to do with the name of not. :confused: