TSC

FYI - Some testing centers require you drive up. We are cruising out of Seattle after flying in a day earlier and discovered that the CVS and Walgreen's testing in Seattle all require you to drive up. We won't have a car so we will get our test at home before flying out. Our Florida CVS and Walgreens offer free testing. CVS asks if you need the test for travel (it's one of the ways they can get the test to qualify for government funds to pay for the test.) 

4 hours ago, dvdgunner said:

I am just wondering what people think about still having to wear masks while inside of the ship except while actively eating, drinking, or inside room cabin. It really seems over the top since the ship is fully vaccinated for everyone 12 or up on our August 16th trip to Alaska on Serenade of the Seas out of Seattle! Really ridiculous considering that the rules out of Florida are not even requiring a vaccine!

I agree - and hope that they change that rule. We are scheduled to sail on Ovation out of Seattle in August and I really don't want to be wearing masks all the time. (I'm 100% in favor of masks when they are helpful but since we will be a 100% vaccinated cruise, it doesn't seem to make sense.) 

We used Dancing Bears and they couldn't have been more wonderful. My husband took his walker both days on our two days in St. Petersburg. Our guide made sure he got accessible access everywhere (the Russian ADA people practically carried him down the escalator to the subway) and the driver always got the van as close as possible. It worked really well. His walker has a seat and when he gets too tired, he just sits a few minutes so that he can continue on the tour.  

I've qualified for the "discount" but I've never seen it actually discount the price you can get from other sales. 

I agree with flying in the day before...but... I've flown in on the day we boarded without any trouble. If you can get a direct flight you should be safe. Even better is go with Choice air through Celebrity and they will make sure you get on board. 

A friend had peanut butter confiscated flying from Florida to New York - said it was considered a "liquid" or "gel".

6 hours ago, Mr&MrsBee said:

Any ideas on charging and parking scooter in a C2 on Silhouette?  Sp.ace between bed and wall?  Bed is near bath.  Anyone with experience?  I am having no luck with Celebrity.  Scooter is 21 in wide.  Will it make a turnaround or pull in and back out?  Please try to answer questions.  I know it will be tight.  Thanx for helpful ideas or share past experiences.  Cabin not a handicap cabin

Any chance you can get the other room configuration? We travel with my husband's scooter and once when we couldn't get a handicapped cabin we called celebrity to see if they could find us a cabin with the bed near the balcony. You can fit the scooter inside in that configuration. It is tight and in the way, but it fits. My husband was able to do a three point turn in the room - (or a 10 point turn since it took more than 3 adjustments). But, he could get in and turn so that he could drive out and not have to back out. With the bed near the door- you might be able to get the scooter in the room but it won't fit past the bed so it will probably block the bathroom door. We also bring an extension cord because it can be a challenge to reach an outlet.  (We do book ahead and now will change cruises if we can't get a handicapped cabin but in the past we've given it a try in regular rooms). 

we booked a private tour in St Petersburg with Dancing Bears for our group of 6. But, last time we were in the Baltic we used Alla and had a great time. Afterwards we talked to those who went with SPB, and Denrus and all of us had similar days and a great time. 

So - I booked SPB for Berlin. I'm not looking forward to the 3 hour bus ride but some in our group really wanted to see Berlin. If you do SPB for Berlin and St. Petersburg, they give you a discount on the Russian part. 

just read another post where they posted a picture of the poster showing the cost for the lockers. The small is 17 per day, medium about 21, and large 26? (I think.)

Corkage fee. If you take the bottle to dinner, you'll pay a fee to have them uncork it. We usually just ask our room steward for wine glasses - uncork in our room and bring the full glass to dinner with us.

snorkling vest - they do not require you to wear a vest unless you rent their equipment.

We just used them a couple of weeks ago. Nice people with good service. Small fenced lot very close to Terminal 3 (truly walking distance). Very happy with them. The first shuttle doesn't come until 7:30, and we were off the ship by 7:15, (early disembarkation) so we walked over. We were in our car at 7:35.

Happy to recommend Park 4 cruise. It is so close to Terminal 3 (RCCL) that we actually walked after early disembarkation because the first shuttle doesn't come until 7:30. We were in our car at 7:35.

My DH also has Parkinson's (diagnosed at 45, 16 years ago) and we know all about good and bad days. The biggest change we've made is that I always include a couple of rest days. He can do a tour but then the next day he needs to rest more, so I don't do back to back long days. Another thing we try to do is get a driver. Like some others have said, the driver can adjust the day to fit his particular level of mobility on that day. He also uses a mobility scooter and we bring it with us everywhere, including cruises. It helps quite a bit, especially at night when he gets slower and is more likely to freeze up. And lastly, I just prepare to go slow on the days he doesn't move well.

My DH has a 3 wheel Pride Go Go that breaks down into four parts (base, seat, battery pack, and back wheels.) I recommend the 3 wheel over the 4 wheel as the 3 has a great turning radius and is perfectly stable.

The base is the hardest part to carry by myself but I can lift it out of the car. The back wheels and the battery pack are heavy but not too bad to lift out. I wouldn't be able to carry any of the pieces very far. if we need a taxi, the taxi driver lifts the parts out of the trunk. We put it back together immediately, at curbside. My DH then drives it right to the airplane door and the airplane crew carries it into the hold. Once on board the ship, we keep it together the whole time. We don't need special batteries. The planes are only concerned about "wet" batteries, but none of the new scooters use wet batteries. The dry cell type battery is not a problem. We have flown with the scooter numerous times all around the US and to Europe several times without difficultly.

Whether or not to get a balcony is very subjective, but for the European cruises, we found that we don't depend as much time in the cabin as when in Caribbean. You dock in the Baltic port early in the morning, spend the day in the city, and then sail away is near dinner time. Your focus is more on the places you stop and not so much on the scenery as you sail (not that it isn't sometimes spectacular). I see an earlier poster mentioned Stockholm and that was fabulous, but we actually watched it from a lounge at the front of the ship with friends since it was an hour or two passage.

We've done it before but it is very cramped. My DH also has a Pride Go Go elite traveler plus - three wheel configuration. It fit in the door but not by much.

The problem is the room configuration. The scooter cannot get past the bed when the bed is near the door. You have to have a room where the couch is near the door. That way you can leave the scooter in front of the couch.

I strongly recommend you call and see if there are any mobility rooms left. They are so much better. My DH loves the fact that there is an automatic door opener so that he can get in and out by himself.

We are going on Celebrity again in two weeks and had to settle for an inside cabin because there weren't any mobility balconies left. My DH would rather have the inside cabin than a non-mobility room. The rooms are quite a bit wider and you have plenty of room to drive right in - plus a place to plug in the scooter without having the scooter in the path of traffic.

Don't forget that you might need an extension cord to make plugging in the scooter easier.

I do not have personal knowledge but I was on CoCo Cay last weekend and made sure to check out several of the beach options. Unfortunately, I did not go see the personal wooden huts. The "huts" are not on the beach.

The usable beach on Coco Cay is roughly U shaped. You disembark from the ferry/tender dock and the first beach on your left was closed off for construction. But, you only had to walk a short ways for the beach on your left to open up. There were no changes to that part of Coco Cay that I could tell. Lots of lounge chairs and you could rent an umbrella in that area. As you reach the bottom of the U, and start to turn back toward the ferry landing, you hit the clam shells section. They were in a small roped-off area just off the tip of Coco Cay. There is a floating bar very near them. The Clam shells did not look very inciting to me. Partial shade from the clam shell but otherwise nothing special. They were packed in there fairly closely although not as close as the other lounge chairs on the other beaches. As you continue to walk around the coast line, you come to the private cabanas. There were a bunch that had a living room setting - an L shaped couch under the canopy and then there were a bunch that looked like a King size bed under the canopy. Those canopies essentially had a private beach as there were very few people over there. However, there is nothing stopping from other people coming over to share that beach. There is a bar area near the canopies. Both the canopy set-ups looked quite nice and each came with two floating mats.

we love Celebrity and have done the med with them 4 times. But, when we take our grands on a cruise we usually go with Royal. Everything is just more geared towards kids - the pool area, the sporting things, some of the shows, the kids club (although Celebrity kids club is very good too.) Mine grands love Sorrentos, the soft serve ice cream, the soda machines, and room service!

We are Elite on Celebrity and just got off the Oasis for RCCL. The entertainment on the Oasis was much better than what we've recently seen on Celebrity, good production numbers and great variety, but I missed the food on Celebrity.

We've done several European cruises (2 last year) and I do think that they are also becoming a bit less formal, especially on the summer cruises with kids. Tuxes are still seen on the older men (less common on the younger crowd) and lots of women still do the ball gown, but cocktail for women is perfectly acceptable. For your kids, a shirt and tie is more than enough. Rarely are the kids in a suit (and by kids I mean anyone under 18).

I also agree that you'll get some great family pix if you plan on at least one night to dress up!

in our first couple of cruises we did ship excursions. Now we usually do private ones (if we do an excursion.) We've always had excellent luck with the private ones. Now the only time we do a ship's tour is if we are worried about getting back to the ship in time or if we are in a country that makes us nervous about venturing out alone. (Pretty rare.)

Where did you find that deal?

I've done it both ways with no problems. And, if you fly with Choice (RCCL flight plan) they will guarantee to get you there or help you get there if there are problems.

We flew in to Venice and went directly to the ship and flew into London and went directly to the ship at Harwich. It is definitely doable. But, of course, if you have time it is best to go ahead of time. We love Barcelona and you'll enjoy a day or two there before your trip.

Getting from the airport to your hotel is really easy. There are plenty of taxis but we hired a private car and it wasn't expensive at all. We found them online "Barcelona airport transfer" and it was great. They were there waiting for us with a sign with our name. Plenty of space for our luggage (because I'd warned them ahead of time). That took away some of my anxiety about being exhausted and confused about how to get to the hotel.

Have a wonderful trip.

I used this before the BOGO for a "free" 7 night cruise and it worked great. Can't remember how much it cost, but I it wasn't much. The problem now is that the RCCL BOGO sale is something of a joke. We all know the actually prices aren't that high (without the BOGO discount) but by saying you are getting a BOGO price and then pricing the cabins at what they almost always sell for allows RCCL to pretend that the actual cost is extremely high which allows them to avoid giving away those "free" cruises. I recommend trying to book during any sale other than a BOGO - you should get a better deal.

we were hesitant to try a TA because we worried there wouldn't be enough to do, but we ended up loving the experience. We did London to Fort Lauderdale in November. A few stops along the way and then 6 sea days. This was a couple of years ago on the Navigator of the Sea. Absolutely heaven. We spent quite a bit of time playing trivia too - (we also won the progressive trivia thanks in large part to my British team mates!) I don't think I'd try a really small ship because we did like that there were several options every day. We had slightly rough weather on the way to France, but after that we had incredibly smooth sailing on the southern route.