mahdnc

Cheryl, Hi. That Med cruise was the best! Yes, our two adult kids no longer find free cruises with their parents to be attractive because of their limited vacation time and other interests. Oh, well. Our Galapagos cruise this past Nov became 50% less expensive! David and Marcia Santorini, Jun 22 2007

Hi. I am the person who originally posted about the problem. Since then I have been on two more cruises where I have been posting live threads with embedded photos. And I continue to have this problem. The problem appears when I use my phone (iPhone 15 Pro in this case) to upload large jpeg files into Cruise Critic. I haven't played around with it to know what the size limit is. My options to handle this problem is: 1. Post those large jpeg files from my laptop which I bring with me. 2. Reduce the size of the photos either through photo processing software. You can also do a screenshot as you suggested. 3. Use my iPhone 13 (my work iPhone) to take photos. All 3 options have drawbacks. I still continue to do #1 (laptop) because I don't want different sizes of my photos (drawback with #2) and I don't want photos from the same trip to be spread out among 2 phones (plus my personal iPhone has a better camera than my work iPhone). It's quite frustrating.

He probably bought offsets to clear his conscience!

Hi, Cheryl! Long time since I have seen a post from you--15 years? Are you still doing river cruises? David

Thank you. Your a6400 and 12 mm lens will work great. So you want to make sure to set your manual lens to infinity, f/4, and at 12 mm. Just make sure you use a tripod as well as a remote shutter release (or the shutter self timer) to eliminate vibrations from touching the shutter button. Make sure camera is set to manual with any in-body stabilization turned off. If your lens has vibration reduction, turn that off, too. I used a 16-35 mm wide angle zoom lens for all of the aurora photos I posed. The lens was set to 16 mm (on a full frame camera) and an f/ ratio of 4 (f/4) which was the widest possible opening. My ISO was set between 400-2000 but most of my shots were done at 1600 ISO. Shutter speed was usually 1.6 seconds. I tried to keep the shutter speed relatively short because the aurora was "moving" or changing shape fairly quickly. 16 mm, 1600 ISO, f/4, 1.6 sec With your f/2 lens this means for the above photo you could have dropped the ISO to 800 or halved the shutter speed to 0.8 sec. Of course the settings I gave you were based on my situation. Yours could be different. Either way you will want to vary your settings after you have found your sweet spot (sort of like bracketing). Your bracketing should include changes in ISO setting. Photo editing software will help improve your photos (e.g. brighten, noise reduction, etc). Stay out as long as you can tolerate when you take your photos because--as you can see from my photos--the aurora shape, brightness, and color keeps changing. You just won't know which are your photos will look the best until you get home and look at them on a large screen. The large sunspot system responsible for creating the fantastic aurora display earlier this month is now rotating back into view of the earth. There is hope that there will be enough activity to generate a repeat show. We will see.

Here is are the official Celebrity flyer and the separate FAQ document.

Good news!

Here is an article regarding an exclusive 600 person charter for Ascent: link Sounds like the entertainment will be better.....

Aqua Spa Cafe menu has been stripped down since the last time you cruised with Celebrity.

Thanks for the write up. If you went back, would you rent a cabana again assuming the discounted price did not change?

Thank you for posting your review. Sorry to hear about the issues you had with the kids club. When they were younger our kids really liked it and never wanted to leave. However Celebrity does need to improve their ability to get a hold of parents in the unlikely event of a problem or emergency.

I have pretty much resorted to bringing a nice pullover sweatshirt or sweater for each cruise exactly for that reason.

I know I posted them on each day, but I don't think I posted all of them in the same spot: here are the links to all the Celebrity Todays for this sailing: Day 1 Fri Dec 22, Singapore Day 2 Sat Dec 23, At Sea #1 of 3 Day 3 Sun Dec 24, Ko Samui (port was cancelled: revised activity list) Day 4 Mon Dec 25, Bangkok, Day 1 of 2 Day 5 Tue Dec 26, Bangkok, Day 2 of 2 Day 6 Wed Dec 27, At Sea #2 of 3 Day 7 Thu Dec 28, Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My) Day 8 Fri Dec 29, Nha Trang Day 9 Sat Dec 30, Hue/Danang (Chan May) Day 10 Sun Dec 31, Hanoi (Halong Bay) Day 1 of 2 Day 11 Mon Jan 1, Hanoi (Halong Bay) Day 2 of 2 Day 12 Tue Jan 2, At Sea #3 of 3 Day 13 Wed Jan 3, Hong Kong Immigration and General Information

@yogamom: Captain's Club Welcome Event (Casual) occurred on Sat Dec 23 (Day 2, Sea Day) at 12:30 pm in the Sky Lounge on Deck 14

There is one and we usually end up missing (not on purpose). Let me see if I can find the date/time.

The Captain's Welcome occurred on Day 2 (Sea Day #1 of 3) at 7pm and 9pm. Here is the Celebrity Today issue: link

Hi and thank you. I have not bothered with putting a website together to act as a central repository for these reviews. I'm too lazy and the information can become very dated quickly. I do post the live threads to help contribute to this wonderful forum and I enjoy sharing photographs and diagrams. I also began posting reviews and live threads when we began sailing more exotic itineraries where the information is hard to come by. I also enjoy the interaction from others (questions, counterpoints, etc)--anything to make the thread more valuable. Also my writing style tends to be more informational and much less of a travelogue (exciting). Having said all of that, all of my live threads and/or post trip reviews are linked in my signature area below. So that means you have to remember my screen name and have the skills to find me through the search function on Cruise Critic. David

We booked our first ConciergeClass cabin ever for our Solstice cruise next April. Did it for the cabin location and not for the above perks. I must say though that Celebrity’s marketing staff could make a day stranded in the Sahara with no water sound appealing.

Yes, you can do that. You may be able to cancel the 4th person before you make final payment because often the minimum passenger limits are lifted as the sailing date approaches. These type of limits come up quite often. For example, there are 3 person minimums on many Solstice class veranda cabins (grayed out balcony cabins). Those minimum limits are eventually dropped.

I was wondering how that adjustment was going to go...

Nice report and very nice photo of Stonehenge. During our Panama Canal sailing last month, the astronomy enrichment speaker did a presentation on Stonehenge which has been an interest of his. Made me want to go and see it someday.

Your organizer should ask Xuan to confirm who is doing the tour. Either way, I sincerely hope you enjoy your tours as well as your cruise! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi and thank you. We booked Xuan for our stops at Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, and Hue/Danang. However Xuan personally conducted the tour only at HCMC. He subcontracted the other two ports because we did not make his required group minimum size. He was pretty clear about the requirement because he lives in HCMC and in order to justify his travel and lodging expenses he needed a minimum of 8 people. There was no minimum for HCMC because he lived there and ironically we had 8 for that tour. He gave me quite a bit of time to see if we could accumulate 8 for the other two tours but we only amassed 6. Yes, it seemed to take a while for us to get our sandwich, but the problem was that our guide (hired by Xuan) wasn't real clear about what was going on (or I didn't listen well which is not uncommon either according to a well placed source that happens to be married to me). Our guide went in to get the sandwiches for us but we mistakenly stood in the long line anyway. When she came out of the restaurant with the sandwiches we just exited the line. In the end, I don't think the wait was that long, but it did feel that way for a while. Yes, all three tours were managed well from a facilities standpoint. There were ample opportunities for it and it was communicated to us at the beginning of the tour so we knew what to expect. I think our young tour guides recognize that us older people look at time and distance from a restroom as a crucial form of risk management (because we do).

Another enthusiastic vote for Roscioli. I posted some information on this thread with photos (link). Although it was only lunch, it was one of our most favorite meals. We hired a private guide for two of our days in Rome back in 2022. I asked her for a recommendation on restaurants and have compiled it here in my spreadsheet: link We enjoyed a dinner at La Ciambella which is an easy walk from Albergo del Senato. We also went to Da Enzo al 29 because it seemed to be universally on everyone's recommended list. We really liked it and it was worth the wait (no reservations taken) but we took a short Uber ride from Albergo del Senato to get there so I don't know if that meets your "nearby" requirements. Waiting in line to eat dinner at da Enzo!