surus

Italian Sojourn 9/27 on Jupiter no longer going to Venice. We just got the email from Viking that the ship will be docking in San Marino (Ravenna) 90 miles south of Venice. Not 90 minutes. 90 miles! Unbelievable. I realize this is not their decision but seriously, this is going to be a two hour trip each way. And if you need to fly out of Venice you can buy a transfer from Viking that will probably eat up the credit they are offering you. They should be offering free transfers. They need to stop marketing cruises to “ Venice”. 

16 hours ago, dd57 said:

We have moved an Alianz policy to a different date, trip type, and destination without an issue.

Our TA advised us against Viking insurance for this very reason. We bought Allianz for a Scandinavian cruise and then changed to Italian Sojurn. No problem and even got a partial refund as it was a cheaper cruise. Then we decided to add three days on our own at the beginning and end of our trip. TA simply had the dates extended. No problem at all.  

Thank you Corgi Guy. Is there enough time to visit Capri? Do you buy ferry tickets ahead of time? 

On 5/4/2023 at 9:56 PM, CorgiGuy said:

Naples -  Presuming you dock at Stazione Marittima cruise terminal.

 

Naples is a walking town.  Here are a few suggested sight within walking distance from the cruise terminal.

 

Sansevero Chapel Museum - The Veiled Christ is a 1753 marble sculpture by Giuseppe Sanmartino exhibited in the Cappella Sansevero, Naples, Italy. Veiled Christ is considered one of the world's most remarkable sculptures.  Its remarkable.  25- min. walk  NOTE: ticket needed to enter, can be purchased on line before your voyage.  Highly suggested to purchase because quite often sold out.

One of, if not considered the top sight in Naples.

 

Teatro de San Carlo - Naples opera house.  One of the most famous in Italy & beautiful inside.  15-min walk from terminal.

 

Piazza del Plebiscito - Near opera house, 14-min walk from terminal.

 

Galleria Umberto I - Indoor shopping center, not far from opera house.  Wonderful architecture.  15-min walk from terminal.

 

Castel dell 'Ovo  - 25-min. lovely walk along the water from the cruise terminal.  When you come out of the terminal its to the left.

 

Piazzeria Speranzella - If you want a very highly rated true Neapolitan pizza.  Via Speranzella 84.  Approx. 20-min from cruise terminal.

 

Ferry to Capri - 3-min walk from terminal, ferry ride approx. 30 minutes.  Make sure you visit Anacapri, and take the chair lift to Monte Solaro, views are fantastic.

We just booked this for our September 27, 2023 cruise. Thanks for the information! 

We plan to use this service in September when we go on our Italian Sojourn cruise. We are doing 3 days in Rome pre cruise on our own and 3 days in Venice after.  The idea is to each take a small carryon for Rome and Venice (with laundry done before disembarking). We are in our mid 70s and DH has two artificial shoulders. We are not schlepping suitcases through airports and onto busses, boats or whatever. Expensive but worth it for us. 

We bring a shoe bag with clear pockets to hang on the bathroom door. That’s where we keep sunglasses, phones, sunscreen, hairbrush, etc.. Clearly visible but out of the way. 

So if vaccines are required to board a ship does that mean pregnant women or those who plan to become pregnant 🤪will no longer be able to cruise since they are advised against getting vaccinated? 

We have a guaranteed aqua cabin. Our cruise is in 35 days. How are luggage tags handles as we don’t have a cabin assigned yet?

I real hope this is a 100 day cruise. I just can not believe you might need all these items. Well maybe it is for 4 people. Our last cruise I thought I was bring 3 pairs of shoes. I screwed up and only brought 2 pairs. Blue boat shoes and flip flops. I did just fine.

The over the door shoe holder isn’t for shoes. It’s for phones, cameras, hair brushes, suntan lotion, baseball caps, meds, deodorant, yada, yada, yada. Best hint I ever got from CC. Make sure you get see through pockets though.

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Thanks for the info but is it the same on The Marina?

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We saw lots of very casual attire on Evening Chic nights on the Summit to Bermuda a few weeks ago. DH asked the matre d' about it and he said corporate tells them they can advise passengers about the dress code but they are not to enforce it. He said he almost lost his job once when he refused entry to an inappropriately attired passenger who then went on to complain about him. He said he missed the old days when people made an effort to look nice.

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We were on the June 5 cruise in 9193. Our toilet stopped working twice. Once for an hour or so and once for most of an afternoon. They told us there was a problem in "our area" but after reading comments here I see that it is a problem ship wide. Someone told me one evening the ladies room outside the MDR had only one stall working. There was a long line! Not good.

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We had a hump veranda cabin on Silhouette last September. We asked our steward for footstools. He said they were not available but the next day two "footstools" appeared on our veranda. They were not real footstools but some sort of boxes that served the same purpose. Very much appreciated. I think for our next cruise I will look into the inflatables or bring beach balls.

i booked Smart Cruise Tours out of Naples. We told them we wanted a half day tour to the Amalfi Coast. There were 6 of us ( 4 of whom were from Cruise Critic site). We just wanted to ride down the coast, have lunch, and ride back. We booked for 9 am. We paid a €40 deposit and were told we would be met next to the ship. We waited and waited as other cruisers were met by their drivers and began their tours. After about 20 minutes a driver from another company asked to see our voucher. He called Smart Cruise Tours on his cell phone and a few minutes later a man approached and asked us to go to an office on the dock. Once inside he showed our voucher to a man behind a desk who began yelling in Italian and pounding the desk. He then went in the back. The 6 of us, four women and two men, began to feel uneasy. Another ten minutes went by until a man appeared and said he was our driver and had been delayed by events in Naples. He led us to a van in another parking area, which was barely big enough to hold us. I had to sit in the middle of the front seat between the driver and my husband.

He asked us about visiting Pompeii and Vesuvius. We told him we had arranged to drive to the Amalfi Coast. At this point the van was exiting the parking lot next to the port. The driver told us he had never driven to Amalfi. Huh? He kept driving and we kept asking him to pull over until we settled on our destination. After much back and forth he returned to the parking lot. He then told us there was not enough time to drive to the Amalfi Coast. We told him we were going to get out of the van at which point he said "oh, I can take you but you will only have about an hour there." Several in our party were very upset at this point and we all left the van.

The best part is when I contacted Smart Cruise Tours to get my deposit back Julia told me we had one of their best drivers who had been to Amalfi many times so was basically calling me a liar. She then said they were not only NOT going to return my deposit but we're going to charge my credit card for the entire tour. Luckily I had used AMEX and sent them all my saved emails, etc. Julia never responded to AMEX so I did in fact get my deposit refunded. Never again will I pay anything ahead of time. Lesson learned.

We are Celebrity newbies too, having taken only one cruise with them on The Summit this past June. We had select dining and reserved our table for two each day (usually around 7:30). There was often a line ten deep of people without reservations waiting for tables while those with reservations stood in a separate line and usually had no wait at all. For our upcoming cruise in two weeks, I have reserved all of our dinners online for between 7-8 PM. I figured if something came up it would be easier to cancel a reservation than try to book one at the last minute.

Just because it is on a list doesn't mean they will actually have it. We were on the Summit in June and upgraded to premium mainly because of the two premium Jameson listed (gold and ten) by Celebrity on this site. Bartenders couldn't find any and Beverage mgr said it wasn't on HIS list. Eventually one partial bottle was found with 2 days left in the cruise. They went above and beyond to find some onboard but I wondered why they didn't just go into Hamilton and buy some. I also read a post here that someone upgraded to get a special rum listed but there was none onboard. So what they list and what you get may be two different things.

We sailed out of Bayonne June 1 for the first time and it couldn't be easier. The signs getting there were a bit confusing but the porters were great. Ours was even singing. When returning the porter loaded all our stuff on a cart and trotted it out to our car in the parking lot. And I mean trotted. We could hardly keep up. We laughed on the way home on how fast it was from ship to car to NJ Tpk.

We were on the same cruise and agree with all you have posted except we didn't have to wait long for tables for two in Select. We stopped by most days around five and made a reservation for as close to 7:30 as they had. Gabriel the hostess did a great job. You mentioned that a certain rum was listed by Celebrity on this site as included in the Premium package but was not available on board. We had the same experience with the Irish whiskey listed. The F&B manager told us it was not on his list but he did manage to find a bottle somewhere and by the 5th night we had some. All in all a very good cruise and excellent crew.

Just off the Summit to Bermuda. As I said on another thread a word of caution is in order about the list posted by the Celebrity representative. We upgraded from Classic to Premium based on the inclusion of Jameson 12 and Jameson Gold on the list posted by Celebrity on this site. When we ordered it onboard none could be found. The next day the bartender found a bottle of 12 with about two inches left in it. We met with the Food and Beverage manager who said neither the 12 nor the Gold was on his list as included and he didn't know if they had any on the ship. After we got to Bermuda a bottle of Jameson Gold was located in storage but apparently could not be brought out until after the ship left port. So yes we did finally get it with two days left on the cruise and the staff went above and beyond to find it. Just an example of Celebrity not being on the same page across the board and just because some list says it's included doesn't mean it is.

Cellar Masters was our favorite bar on our June Summit cruise. We enjoyed Dimitri and his stories about his grandmother. There were a few times when every bar stool was occupied plus a few of the comfortable chairs and couches. Other times it was just us and one or two others. A few people asked about beer and Dimitri would hand them the menu. We didn't look at the beer menu as we prefer wine. I am sorry to hear Cellar Masters is being fazed out in favor of a gastropub. We don't book suites so can't us Michael's Club. Where to go to have a nice glass of wine or single malt in an upscale atmosphere? We are on Silhouette in September.

We were also on this cruise, our first on Celebrity. We had a veranda cabin. Overall we were very pleased. We thought the food in the MDR was very good and the service was great. The wine steward was very attentive and we never had a problem getting a glass of wine. We also enjoyed the buffet, especially the carvery, cheeses and salads. Everything was tasty. Sometimes there was a problem finding a cleared table and if we had to bus a table we did, as did others. Our one dining disappointment was Normandie which we saved for the last night for a special 46th anniversary dinner. The place was half empty, service slow, table side presentation of the beef dish consisted of the waiter slicing a filet and putting it on our plates. It tasted like sirloin. The accompanying vegetables were 2 thumb size potatoes and something green that I can't even remember. The waiter vanished and after we ate we left.

We upgraded our drink package and enjoyed the water, fresh juice and better wines (we often paid an up charge as some of the wines by the glass are pretty expensive. I ordered a glass of ice wine before I realized it was $30!). We enjoyed Cellar Masters and Dimitri very much. One kink with the premium pkg was the lack of the better Jameson's that Celebrity listed on this site a few weeks ago. We couldn't find Jameson's 12 or Jameson's Gold anywhere. DH met with the food and beverage manager and he said he wasn't aware that it was listed as part of the package but he would see what he could do. A bottle was eventually located but couldn't be removed from storage until we left Bermuda. But sure enough, right after we sailed the bottle was picked up by Dimitri and kept for us at Cellar Masters. We did appreciate the extra effort put forth to accommodate us.

We have another Celebrity cruise scheduled for September on Silhouette and are looking forward to experiencing S class. We feel compared to Oceania and Azamara Celebrity offers very good value.

I do not see the discount for buying bottles of wine mentioned. I believe it was 20% off per bottle if you had the premium package. Is there still a discount and if so what is it? Thanks.

The best hint I ever got was on these boards before our first cruise. Buy an over the door shoe bag with clear vinyl pockets to hang on the bathroom door. This holds everything from hairbrushes to suntan lotion, sunglasses, cameras, etc. We never cruise without one now and cheap enough to leave if you don't want to bring it home with you.

We have been to St Bart's 6-7 times on land vacations, never by cruise ship, so maybe that experience is different. I recommend renting a car and exploring the island. It is small but beautiful. Yes it caters to the rich and famous and the prices are outrageous. If you know that going in you can plan accordingly. The people can be a bit standoffish but if you trot out your high school French they can't help but smile and lighten up. I would welcome an itinerary that includes St Bart's .