TexSea

Disappointed to hear this, might be time to jump ship. We have been praising Celebrity to friends who have never cruised. They are joining us on the Silhouette in December in a RS. I feel bad that we encouraged them. While turn down service is not a necessity, when you are paying over $10k for 7 nights you have to wonder if the loyalty status is worth it.

I'd be REALLY surprised if this change applied to suites. But who knows...

If true, this is really disappointing. One of the nice things about cruising was coming back to a fresh room after dinner.

I think 9 out of 12 days I had the huevos rancheros. The caramel croissants and the cherry-filled pastry were soooooo good.

We did have one very slow breakfast on the Silhouette this June. It seemed everyone disappeared. We were pretty hungry so we left and went to the buffet - unfortunately Blu was closed by then. The Luminae manager found us upstairs eating and implored us to come back down. He also offered to have the breakfast sent to the cabin. He was very apologetic and it really wasn't a big deal since the buffet was available. Service was better in Luminae after that incident. We never thought about it again on the trip but the manager was still apologizing on the last day as we were disembarking.

Good morning. Only suite guests and Zenith level Captain's Club members can use Michaels.

Thank you for your review.

 

Is there a method to print the Celebrity Today file that you have linked and stored in Photobucket?

 

Marilyn

I scanned my copy and made a PDF of it. You can download it at

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67289472/Silhouette-Baltics-06232016.pdf

Hope this helps!!

The advice in Rick Steves book on the ABBA museum is that you can book a time slot in advance but there are also machines in the entrance for your use if you have not booked ahead. Can someone confirm ?

Yes, there were kiosks and cashiers open for people to purchase tickets when we picked up our pre-ordered tickets. I wasn't sure about in-person ticket availability either so I bought them online right before we left the Vasa (using their wifi) for the five minute walk to Abba. There may be a surcharge added to the ticket price if you don't purchase tickets ahead of time.

Just off 10 days ago. It's terrible, I can't remember for the life of me her name, but she was shorter, had glasses, dark hair (pulled up) and very friendly.

 

Sorry I should remember her name. chris

I don't remember her name either but she is from Mexico so it doesn't sound like it's the OP's person.

We did have the premium pkg on Baltic cruise we just returned from, but we did have to sign for drinks from the bars.

Hi Chris!! We never had to sign for drinks the entire time, unless we ordered a bottle of wine. Even in Luminae when we ordered a drink over the limit (some champagne to celebrate surviving SPB in tact) we didn't sign a slip, but our account was charged the price difference.

We were also on the recent Silhouette sailing with pjs678 and Bernetta.

When we were getting back on the ship in Warnemunde (we had done the Friends of Dave tour in the local area) a few people returning from Berlin were complaining that they didn't get to see all the sites (such as the Berlin Wall) but others in different Celebrity tour groups were able to visit the wall twice on their tour.

The train lets you off VERY close to the ship. I was told it wasn't air conditioned, but there were restrooms and you could walk around.

Just got back from our Baltics cruise and loved the ABBA museum, definitely a highlight for us. Be sure to allow enough time there (a couple of hours) so you can do all the interactive exhibits.

On this trip we used the car-sharing service app Uber everywhere instead of trying to figure out the public transport system (which is normally something I like to do). From our ship docked at Frihamnen it took about nine minutes on a Monday morning and cost 179 kr. For comparison, the taxi rate was a flat 200 kr from the ship.

We also went to the Mamma Mia Party http://www.mammamiatheparty.com and despite the dialogue being in Swedish it was sooooooooo much fun.

Saw this photo and thought, wow, that's a LOT of people with iPads. ;)

Great review!!

I know what they are but I have never used them.

 

From a personal preference they are not something I would use since I do not wish to encourage illegal taxi operations.

 

They are not an authorized taxi company and according to DN newspaper, so far at least 21 of their drivers have been convicted for Svarttaxi ("black market taxi").

 

http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/uber-tjanar-pengar-forare-far-ta-smallen/

 

...

Thank you for that feedback. I read the article and it sounds like it could have been written here in Texas as the same issues are being discussed now.

Thanks for all the helpful information.

Can you speak to using the ride-sharing app Uber in Stockholm? Are cars readily available? I'm thinking of using Uber instead of the transit system for a couple of evening activities.

Thanks!

Thanks for the nice review. We'll be on board in three weeks and I'm glad to hear the service and Internet were good.

Do you happen to have the Celebrity Today's that you could post?

Not sending regular text, either.

 

Jayson - How/where do I turn off iMessage? If I do that, how will I text?

 

Also, I thought this Verizon Global worked on cruiseships, too? That's what they claim.

 

For my iPad (that I foolishly bought as a deal through Verizon), that I do not want to use the data. How do I turn off iMessage? I would like to use iMessage as I did on my old iPad using the ships WiFi. :(

I'd double-check that your plan includes cruise ships usage. In my experience with AT&T the international plans do not cover them and any text messages (or calls) on ship are billed.

If your plan is not covered, the previous recommendation to turn on airplane mode and enable wifi would allow you to use iMessage (the blue bubbles that requires the internet, either wifi or cellular). The green bubble text messaging would not work in airplane mode since it requires the phone network.

But if you are on ship wifi I wouldn't bother turning of iMessage (which can be done in Settings > Messages). Doing so was the only way I could reliably send a green bubble text message with cellular data off and not connected to wifi. I was also able to send a pic, but YMMV.

We are traveling internationally, beginning this weekend. I have been testing my iPhone and playing with the recommended settings to use with the Verizon Global Plan... 100 minutes, 100 texts and 100MB

 

What I don't understand:

 

If I turn OFF my Cellular Data, I am not able to send or receive text. :confused: Maybe phone and data, too! I haven't tested that.

 

So how can I use the plan with C-Data off?

 

And what about Voice Roaming...is that suppose to stay on?

Also turn off iMessage and make sure you are sending texts to phone numbers, not email addresses (which iMessage also allows). Just tried it and that seems to work with the cellular data turned off (I'm on AT&T). Then when you are in port you can turn the data on as needed to look up something. On the ship at sea, you may receive text messages and be charged for them so you'd want to be in airplane mode then.

Hey!

Guillaume and Martin here, will be spending our honeymoon on the cruise. Can't wait!

Congrats Guillaume and Martin! We'll be celebrating our one year anniversary on the ship too.

Just a few more weeks....:)

see this thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2350885

Hope this helps!

Really interesting idea! I was hoping to make Tallinn an easy day after three days in SPB, but this is too cool.

When looking at this further you can also swim in the mineral-rich marshes to improve your skin. Maybe I can sell this as a spa day...

I've called before on this very issue. The cruise won't disappear from your page until the cruise begins. The reason being they want to make very sure you are aware you cancelled the cruise.

Sure enough, our previously booked and cancelled cruise that started today is no longer on my page. It was booked via a TA so that may make a difference too.

Hope this helps!

Do you still need to fill out the form requesting that the plates be delivered? In the past we've had success with requesting a cheese plate or "no olives" on that form to make sure we received something we'd enjoy. When it was the cheese plate it looked like the regular room service version.

Thanks for the article. We are definitely getting tickets this summer.

You might find interesting the Mamma Mia Party, http://www.mammamiatheparty.com. We bought tickets for our June visit. But starting in July they will have an English language version as well. CNN has an article about it, http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/19/foodanddrink/mamma-mia-the-party-stockholm-sweden/.

Are you using any sort of ad blocker or tracking blocker (like Ghostery)? If so, whitelist the Celebrity website, otherwise the link won't appear. I just tried this on a browser that did not have the site whitelisted and the link was not there - in fact the entire page was completely different.

See this screenshot.

I find it easier to see that type of information looking at the PDF brochure for a particular cruise. Go to http://www.celebritycruises.com/plan-a-cruise/shore-excursions and click on the link that says "Download shore excursion brochure for specific sailings." Fill out the form and then you can download a PDF with the times for that sailing. I have noticed that what's in the PDF is not always what's on the website and actually reservable - and vice versa.

I haven't tried this from my iPad, only from a desktop/laptop.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the review. And for mentioning that Stefania is still onboard. We've known her since our first Reflection cruise when she was in Blu. Makes me want to change our Silhouette cruise in December back to Reflection....