guy999

So i am not elite yet on celebrity and already have a trip planned in a couple of months but continually read about people disappointed over the decline in quality over time. I'm actually pretty happy with celebrity, but we have always been in suites up until this one. We are trying out aquaclass this time.

Anyways for all of you guys trying out crystal for example, can you put your age down because really I'm 47, my wife is a year younger, we don't bring our kids along but while I might enjoy the service and food on crystal or viking, I think I would be by far the youngest passenger on the boat, sometimes I feel like that on celebrity, for example the 2 weeks Mediterranean tour, but at least people are close in age.

Is there really a luxury cruise line for people in my age group, because I haven't found one yet?

I actually think celebrity is the best at this level and the next thing to book would be renting a 100-150 foot ship for cruising but price gets pretty up there at that level.

A good few years ago, we took a cruise that sailed to/from Amsterdam and on the return, we were practically in a traffic queue returning to dock. We were several hours late and this caused immense problems for many US guests that had arranged early flights. I remember it vividly as Julie Sherringham was the GS manager onboard at the time.

 

It’s the luck of the draw - sometimes everything works according to plan and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s also worth checking that the ‘Sail’ event is not happening at the same time as you cruise as that can also caused delays and a change in the port in AMS (that’s also happened to us ;)).

awesome info thank you so much.. these are the dates on sail amsterdam this year. aug 12-16, pretty close to when i'm traveling but I leave before but that's very helpful, plus there is a good website detailing all of the different events thanks a bunch for this.

is the ship really full? and still able to sit down on time?

Interesting... that is the same flight we have. Originally was 10:30am and changed to 10:20am. I called and after a day or two of back and forth Choice Air said if we wanted to keep the flight they would provide a transfer for us. Problem was that it was about $100 per person... really? At this point we have kept that 10:20 flight since we are flexible and could spend the night if it doesn’t work out. We have been very fortunate with early flights in the past and are flying business class, so hoping we make it since it is a Saturday.

 

 

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i think i may do what you do, because we could just on the next days flight if we have to.

Have you asked Celebrity what the earliest flight they recommend is?

hmm never done that before. feels like around here everyone seems to feel that calling for information isn't the most reliable, but I can give it a shot, can't hurt..

We are sailing into Amsterdam at the end of our cruise in August. The ship should arrive at 6am based on the schedule now. We would like to catch the 10:20am nonstop flight back to the US, all of the rest have multiple stops, otherwise we have to wait until the next day, there is only one daily nonstop back to Dallas.

I don't mind lugging my own bag off of the ship early, but could I make a 10:20am flight back?

We are in aqua class if that makes any difference.

Also we are flying back in First on American, but it's very difficult to tell if they have faster security like JFK or Heathrow if you are in first. Usually a couple of hours in advance is more than enough time in First.

Any ideas, or even where to look for information on this would be appreciated. I did search for awhile but couldn't find anything on point.

also addendum, we are arriving 5 days before our cruise so we will have seen lots of Amsterdam before we sail, we don't really need another day if not needed.

please write as much as you can, this is the trip that I missed and I would love to live vicariously through you guys. I'm starting chemo in about a week and a half and it looks like I'll have time to read. thanks for posting this. I looked forward to this trip for almost a year and was saddened that I didn't get to go, but that's not the way things went.

Cloth bags for suites; paper bags for other categories, but you can request paper bags in suites if you prefer.

 

Limit is usually 30 items per bag, but in water restricted areas it is sometimes 20.

 

We close paper bag by folding over the top a couple of times - no laundry hanging out.

Cloth bags have drawstrings.

 

Occasionally there are "stuff a bag" specials, but we have not seen them in a long time.

Typically the limit is on number of items, not number of bags, so when the limit is 30 items we use a 2nd bag when sending thick or bulky items instead of trying to cram it all into one bag.

 

 

paper bag in my celebrity suite in Alaska, last year.

does anyone know who is the MC club concierge on Silhouette, maybe her email as well?

to rephase this discussion for the celebrity supporters, what if I sailed in on say a princess cruise, and got off of the ship and went to passport control and then celebrity cruise staff basically walked in front of all of the princess people and then cut them off. because from what I read that's essentially what happened.

f

would being in the royal suite, bump you up to the same level as the people taking the celebrity tour?

They probably don't run it through The credit card company each time so basically the cost is marginal because they likely have their own system that is managing this. And then the charge is sent to the credit card company at moms of the voyage

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If I missed those posts I apologize - I did a search and only found information on car rentals themselves. My question is about driving conditions. Has anyone driven a car in that area? We can find alternative transportation if driving is to be avoided for some reason.

 

We've already booked the car, by the way; just wanted to know a bit more before we get there.

i think she was talking about my post. i'm planning on driving too so far, since there are three of us, seems like driving is a pretty good option as long as there are no accidents. but what i read on the trains are they can be late as well, most of the train posts are from 2013, but i'm continuing to read.

my guide in berlin wants me to rent a car and driver to pick us up in warnemunde and drive us to berlin and drive us around for the day for 550 euro plus the cost of the guide, about 80 euro an hour, so i'm seriously looking at the rental car option, because then i can just leave whenever i get the car. 6 tickets on the train would be more than the car for the day, 3 there and 3 back

which is why you have come to the conclusion as well

Not to hijack your post here but we are also traveling in July to the same area on celebrity silhouette and my plan was actually to go to Berlin but we were going to Rent-A-Car and drive so that we could accomplish it quickly. I have no desire to be in a large bus with a lot of other people. I am somewhat concerned about the distance and accidents along the way. But we have a quote for a private driver for $550 for a round-trip which I felt was excessive so I'm trying to figure out if people think that a rental car option is a good option

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This is very helpful information.

I have never flown out of Amsterdam before, but we are flying first on american back to the States, will that make the lines any shorter at getting through customs/security, at heathrow they have those special lines do they have anything like that at AMS

Celebrity does have a fee of $4.95 I believe but only from 11 pm to 6 am but if in a suite it doesn't apply (from what I've heard, don't sail in suites).

i always sail in a suite, and i always thought that there was an extra charge for room service, i never looked. but now that i'm going again in a few months i'm glad to know not a charge,

love it, I'm saving this to my phone, thinking about adding check boxes so i can try and check off each one but i would probably need a longer cruise.

:)

we took a bus to it and pretty much sucked, we happened to be on the last bus and they wouldn't let us get off the bus so we ended up being the absolutely last people to get on, so there is one side that is good to be on, and when you are the last bus you will know which one is good because the opposite of that is where all of the seats are.

I just stayed in the back of the bus and that was ok. my wife really didn't want to stand up the entire time so she didn't see much.

I would in the future try to get some other way to get there.

you can develop something after a uri called chronic pneumonitis, and that sounds like what you have. Basically it's a imflamatory process in the lungs and antibiotics won't really help. Unfortunately if you got the er or a doc in the box, you will likely get more abx and it will likely not improve your symptoms. I agree the above recommendations, er is not really helpful, you aren't dying that's not the place for you.

I would probably move up to a pulmonologist. You can call your family practice doc for a recommendation. Typically these guys are board certified in pulmonary and critical care.

Usually treatment is a brochodilator and inhaled corticosteriods for awhile, but certainly ppd needs to be done, CXR, possibly more, especially if you were a smoker in the past.

I had a good friend develop this after a trip to Rome, man it drove me crazy just listening to him cough all day long, lasted for probably 6-9 months. I'm imaging that it bothered him more than me.

Excellent question we have often wondered the same thing.

 

We just returned to the port of Galveston from the Liberty of the Seas. In the past Canadian residents have often joined the US citizen lines or had their own line at immigration. Not so this last time, all International guests qued together into three lines out of twelve that were operating. The US lines moved along fairly quickly. Not so the International lines, with 800 friendly guests from Mexico, all of the Mexican adults had to have their fingerprints checked (!?) causing major delays for International guests. Wow! We got off the ship in good time, probably in the first half of the passengers and watched as the all of the US passengers cleared immigration leaving three long lines of International passengers still waiting until they finally ushered the remaining International guests to the now empty US ques. We were some of the last to be processed and had the crew agoing ashore queuing up behind us! The long two hour lineup was not a very warm and friendly return. When we finally did get processed the agent processed us in barely a minute, a seemingly unnecessarily long and frustrating wait after an otherwise enjoy table vacation.

 

Patience required for International guests!

Dianne

the only way the government is going to change is if so many international passengers stop traveling that celebrity, carnival, Marriott, etc complain and say that it is hurting their business. While this would seem to be a trump issue, it's really not, the us has always had the worse queues for international travelers.

I'm paying 1333 a night for two for celebrity suite in the baltics this summer I thought it was excessive but I wanted to go and I wanted the suite really I wanted a royal suite but for twelve days it was 30k us

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I love the CS suite because I don't sleep in as late as the wife, so I get up and go watch tv in the other room, or one of us can take a nap while the other one is up on the phone whatever.

i did see one time sailaway on the bridge, but the only person i saw up there was in the penthouse.

it was my first cruise, but i was in a royal suite. I have had two more cruises since then in lower level rooms and didn't get invited.

Then why are drink prices on Princess so much less?

(Mostly under $10 for ANYTHING!)

 

A couple of years ago there was one wine that we had on both Princess and Celebrity.

Celebrity was charging about 1 1/2 times what Princess was.

 

My point was only that we're a captive audience.

It's not like on land where, if you feel the price in one bar is too high you can just go somewhere else.

same wine at the four seasons is more than outback, both are nice, i eat at both but one sells higher.. i don't like it either, but it's what it is.