realnice46

In June 2017, my grandmother and I will be tendered at Villefranche. We have a couple of decisions to make regarding this port. We either want to go to Monte Carlo or Cannes. We prefer Monte Carlo, however I have read that Monte Carlo involves a lot of steps and walking. My grandmother is 70 and has no serious physical disabilities, but she does have to take it slower due to her age. Given this information, would you suggest Monte Carlo or Cannes? We are also wondering the best way to get to Monte Carlo and Cannes. A lot of people suggest buses and trains...but that makes me VERY nervous given that our ship leaves with or without us. I've looked into ship offered excursions, but they don't allow a whole lot of time at Monte Carlo...very short time frames. Suggestions?? I appreciate any advice!

I wouldn't go to either, take bus to one of the beautiful hill towns such as Eze.

Unfortunately the other place would have been Nice, wonderful city very flat and lots to see. Maybe a possibility since you aren't going until 2017.

Thank you all for your information.

I have seen many threads as to what is included in classic drink package on Celebrity, but nothing recent and Celebrity's website does not seem very clear.This will be our first experience with the package. Are canned sodas, specialty coffees, fresh juices and bottled water included?

Decisions, decisions... I'm planning a family cruise next summer to celebrate our kids' graduations (High School and College). I know I won't get EXACTLY what I'm looking for, but I just can't decide.

 

Here are my top factors/considerations:

 

CRUISE LINE

 

We aren't huge fans of cruising. There, I said it. We've done Carnival (NEVER AGAIN) and Disney (not for us). We tried Celebrity a few years ago and have actually sailed with them 3 times (7 day Xmas cruise to Caribbean on Silhouette for all 4 of us; 5 day Western Caribbean on Constellation just DH, DD and myself; and 7 day Bermuda anniversary cruise on Summit just DH and me). If we are going to cruise, we would pick X all day long.

 

CABIN CLASS

 

Our last cruise was Aqua Class and we determined that was definitely for us! We loved Blu and never set foot in the main dining room. Aqua Class is a must.

 

SHIP CLASS

 

We've sailed on both S class and M class and while we liked both, we prefer the S class. Our favorite was The Lawn Club Grill, but alas, that is only on the Silhouette and the Reflection, which don't match our itinerary needs for next year. Our choices are basically the Constellation or the Equinox.

 

ITINERARY

 

This is a first time trip to the Med for DH, DS and DD. I spent 5 weeks in Europe back in high school and fell in love Cannes and Venice (also visited Rome, Florence). For me, if I had to pick just one port, it would be Venice.

My daughter's top pick is Barcelona and my son and husband are more easy going.

 

We prefer more port days than sea days, although a sea day or 2 would be fine to recover from the long days of sightseeing. Absolutely no back-to-back sea days, however. DH starts to go stir crazy.

 

PRICE

 

Price is a factor, but not a show stopper. I'm surprised to see the Constellation is generally more expensive than the Equinox.

 

DATES/LENGTH

 

We have to sail between mid-June 2017 and late July 2017. In a perfect world, I would travel over the 4th of July because it is a slower time at work for DH and me. We would consider anything from 7-12 days and would add extensions based on how long the cruise itself is. (We will, of course, fly in a day (probably 2) early so as not to miss the ship!

 

OPTIONS

 

So, here are my best options as far as I can tell:

 

Equinox (7 nights) departing July 1 from Barcelona with stops at Cannes, Florence, Rome, Amalfi Coast, Messina and Athens (AQ starts at $2299 pp) Pro: Celebrity, Aqua Class, S Class

 

Constellation (10 nights) departing July 3 from Barcelona with stops at Valencia, Florence, Rome, Kotor, Split, Venice (AQ starts at $3299 pp) Pro: Celebrity, Aqua Class, Venice

 

HAL Oosterdam (12 nights) departing June 28 from Barcelona with stops at Provence, Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, Naples, Corfu, Kotor, Dubrovnik, Venice (Veranda starts at $2699) Pro: Love all the ports...VENICE!!!!

 

Writing this out is a first step. Opinions welcome. :)

Alas my choice of ship would be S Class Equinox , but 7 days is just too short, you lose a day at each end and just barely get settled. I guess it would be okay if you were going to add time at either end of cruise. The HAl itinerary sounds great, we love all those ports especially Naples and Dubrovnik. If you can spend a few days in Venice or Barcelona, wonderful cities.

Thanks Karen...appreciate info

Hi, we are on Silhouette August 6 British Isles cruise too. We were in Bruges last August and we were able to see Madonna & Child, but yes they are renovating the church. Hoping they are a little further along this year.

Wilma

.....keep all invoices, emails and date/time/name of people you have spoken to 'just in case'. I don't think I would spend my money yet either....

 

Sincerely hope this is a genuine error in your favour.

Always a good idea to keep all copies of invoices and dates, times and person you talk to. this is also true for any company you talk to. Many of these companies record their calls and you can then have them reference information.

Shall be arriving at Le Havre in August with 12 hours to spend. Have given up the idea of going to Paris as it is a bit far off and we have been there so many times already :). I read from the web that we can consider going to Honfleur or Rouen. Would be grateful for any advice as to which option is better and ways of getting there. Thank you so much in advance!!

Depends on where your interest are. Honfleur is a beautiful port just to walk, enjoy lunch at an out outdoor café and browse in all the shops and patisseries.

If you are interested in WWII history a tour of the D-Day beaches might be your choice . Also if there is a tour to Mont St Michel very beautiful, but filled with tourists during the day and if it is rainy the lanes in the town can be very hard to manage with an umbrella.

With this itinerary for September 19-29:

 

VENICE, ITALY

AT SEA

CATANIA,SICILY,ITALY

AMALFI COAST (SALERNO),ITALY

ROME (CIVITAVECCHIA), ITALY

FLORENCE/PISA(LIVORNO),ITALY

AT SEA

AT SEA

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

VENICE, ITALY

 

would you recommend port or starboard?

 

Thanks

It seems like we always choose the Starboard side on deck 10 no matter our itinerary. We choose starboard because the smoking section is on the port side of pool deck on Solstice class ships. I suppose if you shoes a lower deck it might not be a problem.

We are booked on a cruise that has the above referenced ports of call. Any ideas of things to do on these port days? Any recommendations of tour companies would be great too as we have never been to these ports.

 

TIA.

 

Kim

We did a tour to Krka National Park, breathtaking. We had enough time when we returned to walk around the town. Check out photos on Trip Advisor. I think we did a ships tour, but I am sure there are some private tours.

One of the issues I have had in the past with X shore excursions is that the descriptions often don't match reality. So having honest reviews from people who have been on the excursions is extremely helpful. However, I have noticed a pattern and I'm wondering if it is due to X's infamous website follies or if people just don't know what they're doing. How many times have you read an excursion review and someone had written a review of the whole cruise? Or, even worse, a review of a completely different cruise? It's usually to complain about something, so they give it a low rating (the cruise) which ends up affecting the excursion rating. It's very frustrating. You see that an excursion has a 2* rating, you investigate and find out there was one 4* from a person who went on the actual excursion and a 1* from someone who had a bad experience on the cruise and placed their entire cruise review on the excursion. Anyone else notice this?

We have only done 1 X shore Excursion and we were pleasantly surprised. Last year one of our ports was Marseilles and I want to visit the village of St Remy and Les Baux and could not find private tour so chose ship's tour. although it was on a big bus it was very nice and as a complete surprise and not listed in the itinerary was a visit to Carrieres de Lumieres and old quarry that features works of art projected on the walls accompanied by wonderful music. I had read about but did expect to be able to visit. Breathtaking!

Are there seat cushions and blankets available at the tattoo. also are small backpacks allowed at the venue?

I have never been to Schiphol Airport before. My DW and I are flying in from the US, and will arrive in the AM.

 

We have prearranged a transfer to our hotel in Amsterdam.

 

Is there a central or designated area where all the drivers wait and meet those they are picking up after arrival?

 

When I get my bags, and go through customs, will I be directed to the spot where the driver will be waiting?

 

Thanks.

You probably should ask your transfer company that question to be sure, but usually they are waiting in luggage area with a sign with your name on it.

My wife is nervous that there won't be enough hangers in the closets. Is it necessary to pack extra hangers?

We usually have them take out the nice wooden hangers and bring us wire hangers, they take up much less room in closet. I do bring a few plastic skirt hangers that I can leave at end of cruise. also on this class ship there is great storage above the bed where we keep all our knit tops and polo shirts folded.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is HUGE with thousands (no exaggerating!) of events happening from early morning till into the early hours. There are shows of all sorts - comedy, drama, musical theatre, dance, music to suit all tastes, story-telling, exhibitions, craft fairs and street entertainment in every corner of the city centre. It does however mean that the city is very busy but really vibrant. Wherever you go you will find something to see or do to fill a day easily. There is a half-price ticket both on Princes Street at The Mound with tickets for that day. Check the edfringe.co.uk website mentioned above. Events at the main Edinburgh Festival tend to focus around more classical entertainment and would probably need to be booked well in advance.

 

I take it you will de docked at Rosyth? The last train back to Inverkeithing (the nearest railway station) is at 11:19 p.m. so you can spend a long day there. Princess usually has shuttle bus between the station and the port but there are many taxis (around £8 for up to 4 opeople). You can get a bus later to Inverkeithing , although you'd have to get a taxi back from there to the ship. Although the port is called Rosyth, Inverkeithing is closer and has much better transport links.

 

There is also a Book Festival, Art festival, as well as the other events you know about.

 

If you'd like any more information, don't hesitate to ask.

We are arriving on Celebrity Silhouette and I think we dock or I should say tender in Newhaven. Thank you for info.

I guess that you have had some experience making reservations on line at Amsterdam restaurants. If I am here in the States, and make a reservation on line, say, at Moeder's, how reliable is the process of making a reservation on line?

 

Have you, or anyone else, had a problem with reservations they have made of line? Is it as good as calling a local restaurant in the US and making a reservation?

 

Any other comments or advice?

 

Thanks.

I had no problem making dinner reservations on line for Moeders and

Haesje Claes, we will be there early August during Gay Pride, so didn't want to miss out. I received responses very quickly from both places. Good luck1

We have chosen select dining for our past 3 cruises and love it. I still make reservation for a general time, when we enter dining room if we have like a certain area we just request that area again and usually end up with same waiter.

Hello! I apologize if this question is here a ton, but I've tried to search and cannot find a thing!

 

I just retired from a long teaching career on Friday, and I'm ready to start planning my adventures!! Hubby and I have been on many cruises to the Caribbean and Bermuda, but we are ready to broaden our horizons!

 

We have a Panama Canal cruise planned this year, but we want our next cruise to be bigger and better! Please tell me, in your opinion, when is the best time of year to travel to the Med? There are so many European cruises that we want to do, and we just need to know when is the best time to see this part of our world.

 

So......what do you think? When should we plan our first Med. cruise? Summer? Fall? Winter? Springtime?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

I agree with most of the posts, May or September best to avoid summer heat and crowds, august being worst for heat , humitity and Europeans vacation in August

We will be visiting Edinburgh on Celebrity Silhouette and may wish to rent a car. what car rental companies are near the cruise ship port?

We will be in Edinburgh for 2 days in August during the Fringe Festival and Tattoo.

We plan to go to Tattoo the first night and see some of the city that day. The second day we will also spend time in town, are there festival activities during the day or are they only in the evening?

Thank you for the review, especially info on Guernsey. We are doing Aug British Isles cruise with some friends and our friend is very stubborn, I keep telling him to be prepared for potential rough seas, we are also visiting Shetland Islands and he thinks he will be fine. I will show him this review maybe he will believe someone else.

It's an alert. See the link below

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/europe-travel-alert.html

We were planning a cruise for next year, but now are unsure of our plans. I realize things can go wrong and happen anywhere, but at the same time, I feel safer cruising from a home port.

It is difficult not to be worried but just listen to your local and National news, such as UCLA shootings and then the women he killed in another state and all the other daily random acts of violence here in the US, that should put things in perspective. I don't think these acts of terrorism or the threats will ever go away and we would miss so much if we put our lives on hold and they would win.

I find the gelato on the S class ships to be tasteless. I think the ice cream is much better than the gelato.

I don't think much of their ice cream either. When you have brands like Hagen Daze, Ben & Jerry's, that real ice cream. My husband is less picky than me and he eats the ice ream on the ship.

Ok, you've piqued my curiosity! How did she discover this remedy?

 

I have seen large containers of pickle chips at the Ocean View Cafe and Pool/Mast Grill, both of which grill hamburgers. I would think they would be glad to pour off some juice into a glass for you. It would certainly be one of the more interesting things people have asked them for.

My husband was having trouble with leg cramps and his doctor too suggested pickle juice and a few other remedies. Also bananas because of the potassium.

I had never heard of the juice before either.

I think they're blaming the checked luggage fees, which force people to use carry on's and hold up security checks.

We have had checked baggage fees for many years now, nothing new, I agree with previous post that this is just to get more funds.

How about every time you call Celebrity you get a different answer? Ditto to all the other suggestions.