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Early in the morning you are sailing by scenery with no river boats nearby so no one to look in! But you do need to take care not to open curtains when docked next to another ship unless you are properly dressed.:D

I always travel solo and took my first river cruise in April. Loved it and had no problems with meals or anything else. People on a river cruise are very easy going and friendly. Booked Avalon next year for the Xmas Markets. They have French balcony cabins on sale at very reasonable prices with no single supplement. AMA also has no supplement but only for cabins with the two high Windows, not the panoramic Windows, which I love as you can get up very early and watch the world go by in your nighties.:D

I was just there mid April this year. Loved the cruise but the weather was absolutely freezing some days. It even snowed when we were in Bruges and rained a lot. But then some days were wonderful, although crisp. The day we spent at Keuchenhoff was perfect for photo taking. It's a great itinerary that I could easily do over again.

The situation there can change in an instant. I would consider how you would feel if Israel were pulled off the itinerary at the last moment and take that into consideration before booking. I was lucky enough to make it two years ago when the rockets from Hamas stopped a month or two before we were scheduled to leave and the cease fire held, but it could just as easily have gone the other way. I am booked again for this year and hope we make it, but if not, I am prepared for a Greek Island cruise.

On the bright side, the cruises to Israel this year, as you probably know, are incredibly cheap for that reason.:D:D

Do they have a sushi bar there or only tables?

IMO The key to whether it is a good deal or not depends on what happens right before and after final payment. And that depends on supply and demand and often how many cabins the travel agencies have to return to the cruiseline.

But if you have the cabin you wanted at a price you are satisfied with, better to stop watching when you can't do anything about it. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but it usually balances out in the end, if you take enough cruises.

A few of these prices are approaching the cost of comparable Azamara and Oceania cruises. The latter often includes free (well not really free) air fare too.

 

From a value perspective Celebrity don't look very appealing when compared to these other lines right now.

I recently booked a veranda cabin on the 16 night Azamara transatlantic April 2, 2017 from Miami to Barcelona for LESS than it would have cost to book a concierge cabin for the 14 night TA on Silhouette from Miami to Rome around the same time.

Now THAT is what I would call a bargain!

Some UK agencies have MUCH lower prices for Oceania than the cheapest prices here in the US. I know this as I have friends who book through a UK agent and have gotten prices way lower than any of the agencies here. So low that I did not believe them until I checked for myself. However the deposit is nonrefundable so you have to take that into consideration.

I agree you must usually be flexible about cabin location to take advantage of some of these reduced prices. However, I cruise solo and to save $2,500 on the aforementioned Holy Land cruise I was more than happy to switch from a C2 with a larger balcony to a C3 guarantee and take my chances rather than being locked in to a specific cabin. I am very satisfied with the cabin I got and will use the savings to fly business class to and from Europe or spend a week in Paris!

I guess it is really a matter of personal choice.

So many people are complaining about HIGH prices on cruises these days... try THIS B2B...

 

 

10 October Constellation, 11 day cruise, Venice to Athens is only $409pp (military rate on an inside cabin) with $200 shareholder OBC! :eek:

 

21 October Constellation, 12 night cruise, Athens to Rome is only $579pp (standard rate on an ocean view cabin) with $375 OBC! :D

 

 

23 nights on Celebrity for $988pp with a total of $575 OBC... AND dirt cheap flights from AIR2SEA. :cool:

 

 

Yes...as with ALL advertised cruise prices, taxes and tips ARE extra... :rolleyes:

 

Yes... you need to be military to get the LOWEST deal, but standard rates are still pretty low...

 

Yes... they are lowly cabins... but prices are still pretty low on balconies... ;)

 

Yes...these prices are from an online site so you don't get Celebrity IT excellence... :p

 

Yes... you need to be a shareholder to get some of the OBC...

 

Yes... I'm sure some people will still find SOMETHING to complain about.

So Teecee, does that mean you will be joining us?

Amazing how many people have booked in the past week now that the prices have dropped so low! Verandas are below $900 pp on the 12 night cruise. What a deal! Sadly, all suites are taken.

Noticed rock bottom cheap rates on Constellation October 21 Holy Land cruise, some even include 1 go big perk. Don't know if they are senior rates or resident but some are even lower than the current Tuesday exciting deal rates. I have never seen that before. Starting at $579 pp inside.

Just thought I would mention this in case anyone is interested before the rates go back up. The ship will probably fill up soon at these deals.:D

Celebrity also is smoke free inside the ship so no asphyxiation when walking by the casino. A HUGE benefit.:D:D

What are the hours for the concierge lunch?

Loved the Pan Pacific. The best panoramic view I have ever had anywhere. So close to the Hatbor I felt like I was on one of the upper decks of the ship. Plus the beds, pillows and linens all top grade percale and so comfortable. Definitely worth the splurge!

Interesting - I sent an email to that address on July 6 and have yet to receive a response. Found it on the Celebrity website as the specific email to use for my inquiry. You must have good karma!

Maybe you should call Captain's Club and ask them to follow up. If you get a good rep, they will do so.

I got a quick resolution of an issue by emailing celebrityonetouch@celebrity.com. It is a subsection of captains club I hadn't ever heard of until last week. Worth a try as they were very responsive to my request.

Ruth, what do you think are the chances of being able to go up to Temple Mount in October? I will be there October 28. Are any of the Jewish holidays on that day? I have been to the Western Wall but never with as many people as shown on the video. Holy cow! As we say here!!! Too many people at that time. There were many Bar Mitzvahs when we were there two years ago and as I recall it was during Sukkot but not sure. But we could not go up to Temple Mount due to a security incident when we were there.

Also how much time does it usually take going up and back through the tunnel at the Wall? I am trying to guage time required if we do have a chance to see it.

Thanks for your input.

We played mah Jong every afternoon on sea days in Blu on my most recent cruises as the venue is not open for lunch. People were also there playing bridge. There were no problems and no one was displaced.

That is correct. We do use our AMEX for almost everything but sometimes will use points and not sure how that coverage would work. We always have additional insurance.

I assume you have other cards to use overseas that do not charge 3% foreign transaction fee like AMEX.

Check out the Tripinsurancestore.com. Steve and his crew are most helpful. They only sell policies from companies that they have vetted and will help you find the best coverage for your situation. Lots of good info on their site and there is an 800 number if you want to talk to someone.

Steve is excellent and very knowlegable. And he will spend a lot of time analyzing the choices of insurance and recommend the best one for you. I have found him to be much more thorough and knowlegable than people at the other insurance websites. High medical evacuation insurance is important in case you have to be evacuated from a ship by air as I have seen on several of my cruises.

Thank you. I have read good reviews of this flight. Mine is 13 hours NS so glad it will be about as pleasant as a flight that long can be.

I am flying Alitalia business class on the 777-200 from FCO to LAX nonstop.

Has anyone taken this plane and if so, how did you like it? Some of the reviews I have read rave about the food and the seat comfort so was just curious.

I was able to book this flight with 62,500 Air France miles which I thought was a great deal.

Citibank and Chase Sapphire transfer miles to Flying Blue, which is KLM, AF, Alitalia and even Delta. I have not had that difficult time getting business class miles to France or Italy, even to Athens for 62,500 ow. Citi thank you premier had a 50,000 mile bonus for spending $3,000 in 3 months plus they give a whopping 3 miles for every dollar spent on travel, gas, taxi, etc. chase also had the same 50,000 mile bonus but only gives 2 miles for every dollar on travel. But these both add up fast plus there are ways to get even more by adding an additional user.

I earned over 135,000 on citi in very little time.:D

If you are taking the Jordaan food tour I recommend not eating breakfast. I got pretty full long before the end of the tour and wasn't drinking anything but water with the food. Others were drinking beer or wine and I don't know how they did it. The food is VERY filling and I doubt if you would want to eat anything for the rest of the day. I know I was totally stuffed!

It is an excellent tour and I highly recommend it. Have fun in Amsterdam. What a wonderful city! Easy to get a taxi to the port. Just ask the hotel and they will book it for you.

They dropped the overnights and day visits due to construction of the port. They left cruises that started and ended in Istanbul which are the ones now being impacted. They did not cancel all stops in Istanbul.

Until today. So sad:(