cyntil8ing

I met my husband when I was 32 and my child was 8. I didn't even introduce the two of them until we had been dating longer than 4.5 months! There is absolutely no flippin' way I would have traveled with them, especially sharing a room, that soon. Our first trip together was a weekend at an amusement park in our second year of dating.

My daughter and I will also be on this cruise. It is our first on NCL and first leaving from NYC. It is my 40th cruise overall. I just came off a storm re-routed cruise that was supposed to go to Bermuda, but went to the Bahamas instead. It was an adventure coming back up the coast to Norfolk over the weekend. Hoping our travels this time won’t be as rocky. We are taking Amtrak up from Baltimore Saturday afternoon and staying at a hotel walking distance from the pier.

Kelly’s Landing. https://www.kellyslanding.com/

My first NCL will be Escape next Sunday. I am a CCL fan, but this one just didn’t do it. I think it was mostly the port change, but I also didn’t feel there was enough going on at night. I felt like we ended up at the piano bar by default because everything else closed, and I am not a Carnival piano bar fan. I agree about the ports. We did get off and enjoyed our beach day at Half Moon Cay. At Nassau, I got off the ship long enough to walk around the new port area then back within 30 minutes. Stayed onboard at Freeport. Here’s a video from yesterday. Doesn’t look too bad as it was from deck 11, but those swells were big! IMG_2422.mov

We were supposed to be in Bermuda this week on Carnival Magic. We got rerouted to the Bahamas instead. Coming up the coast to Norfolk was pretty bad. Not the roughest I have ever been in, but definitely the longest lasting, over 20 hours at least. We got back this morning.

This morning, it cost us $50 with tip. In April, it was about $65 because there was horrible traffic.

Yes! We are casual fans and really enjoyed our visit last year. We spent about 90 minutes there.

Just checked email. Last year, I got my confirmation on 7/13 for our 8/6 tour.

Not OP, but I've taken my kids on Celebrity nearly a dozen times since they were 4 and 6. They're now 17 and 19. They have always eaten from the regular MDR menu.

If they let you book both, I would assume if the first is late returning, the second would still leave on time, but you would be eligible for a refund for the second. No experience though. I did try once by mistake to book a later excursion while having an earlier one booked already, but the times overlapped. It wouldn’t let me book the second until I canceled the first.

And lots of free lunch options. Guy's Burgers put the Mast Grill to shame! Also looking forward to the new dining room menus that are rolling out across the fleet -- old favorites and some delicious sounding new choices. The new dinner salad options are very interesting. Back to topic, I've done this cruise on Summit four times. In fact, 10 years ago today I boarded with my bff for a girls' cruise. I was very sad that next week is Summit's final Bermuda cruise for the season. We cruise in August and were looking forward to returning to Bermuda on Summit. So instead, we'll hop on a train down to Norfolk and board Carnival Magic next month. Same amount of time in Bermuda, arrive 9am Tuesday and depart 4pm Thursday. That's why we chose it over Carnival Legend, which leaves from our home port the same day, but is only in Bermuda from 9am Wednesday to 1pm Thursday. We're also planning on the Dockyard History Walk as soon as we arrive. Thanks so much for all your photos. It's really got me counting down the days -- 30 to be precise!

All of my cruise drinkware. I collect blue glass, so I had to have these. And watch out if you're ever in a scavenger hunt against us. We go hard for our swag!

It's good to see a review that mentions teens, and that they had a good time, even without the rock walls, skating rinks and zip lines. My own teens have been on Celebrity a dozen times since they were 4 and 6 including three times to Bermuda on Summit. They've always had a great time. We got all geared up for a return to Bermuda this year. Our last trip was in 2014! But unfortunately, Celebrity stops calling in Bermuda at the end of this month, and our cruise time frame is next month, so we will be cruising on another line.

We are on this cruise too. We chose it for the two overnights, which we have done multiple times on Celebrity Summit. Celebrity switches to Canada/New England at the end of this month, so it wasn’t an option. We also made the choice of 5.5 hours to Norfolk over 45 minutes to Baltimore for the extended time in Bermuda. We are taking Amtrak to avoid the I95 DC to Fredericksburg area. We got $22 each way tickets, so $132 round trip for the three of us. I don’t think we can drive for that!

Our first ever Oasis class cruise is a few weeks away on Harmony. I have put it off because of crowds and the ports we have been to multiple times on less crowded ships. I expect my reaction will be much the same as yours, but we will see. I am a firm believer there is no such thing as a bad cruise.

We also used Spain Day Tours last summer for two of our ports, Lisbon and Bilbao. Was very pleased with everything from initial contact through post-excursion follow-up. I would use them again without a doubt. Our Bilbao tour was shared. Our Lisbon tour was private.

Looks like there is only one cruise, a six day on Reflection in July for next summer right now.

Personally, if X brings Beyond back from Europe next summer and adds Coco Cay, I will probably book it immediately. We have a Canada/Greenland in late summer, but early summer is open and I have yet to go on Beyond. I have only been to Coco Cay once, but it was a lovely day. Beach day with drink package? Yes, please! As far as sharing Coco Cay with RCCL, I am sure they will work something out to not have both lines call there the same day. Carnival/HAL do it with Half Moon Cay, though I don’t think HAL calls there during the summer months. There have been lots of last minute Europe deals this summer. Maybe X has overdeployed a bit more than demand, so this is an attempt to balance. Not to mention there will be an additional X ship next summer. Any way, I am looking forward to the news and have no worries over it.

Ya know, I really try to be good humored and not fly off the handle at stupid posts, but sheesh. My dad has since died from the cancer-caused brain lesions that caused his seizure on the ship. But funny. Ha ha.

We staggered our passports so that we're not renewing them all the same year. If you go on a cruise each year, save an extra $10/month to get or renew a single passport each year. We didn't do that with Global Entry because we had to go over an hour away for the initial processing. Global Entry expires on the holder's birthday, so we could at least stagger renewals by month when we renewed last year. A few years ago, my dad had a medical emergency while we were on a cruise and we were faced with a decision of disembarking the cruise in Nassau. Since we all had passports, all of us left the ship while he was hospitalized then flew home together two days later. Had we not had passports, my husband and the kids would likely have stayed on board, while I disembarked with Dad. Then along with the medical issues, I would have been scrambling to get emergency passports. And since this was Christmas week AND over a weekend, we would not have been able to get them immediately. I was very glad we were not forced into that situation.

Been to Bermuda four times on Celebrity Summit. It arrives Wednesday morning, departs late Friday afternoon, giving 3 days with enough time to do things. NCL does this from NYC too. We have never run out of things to do. Highlights include Horseshoe Bay, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda Zoo and Aquarium, Crystal Caves, St. George's, Hamilton, Southlands, Tom Moore's Jungle, and our repeated favorites -- biking on the Railroad trail and renting boats to cruise around the west part of the island. We wanted to go back this year after not having been since 2014, but Celebrity switches to a New England/Canada itinerary in August, when we were looking to cruise. Instead, we will be going on Carnival Magic. It departs Norfolk, VA on Sunday, arrives Bermuda Tuesday at 9:00am, departs Thursday at 4:00pm. It was sold out when we found it a few months ago, but immediately after final payment, two or three cabins became available. We grabbed one.

I’ve done about 15 cruises on each Carnival and Celebrity. I am a fan of both, and they definitely compete for my bookings. I have upcoming cruises on both. I am excited about the new menu options and delighted by the new entree salads. I have always been a big fan of the Indian vegetarian option available each night, often choosing it once or twice per cruise. I’ve looked forward to the daily menu reveals this week. Lots of old favorites, plus some new things I am looking forward to trying. The new menus won’t be in place before our August cruise to Bermuda, but the will by next year’s cruise to Canada and Greenland. We have done Summit to Bermuda four times over the past 12 years. Unfortunately they switch to Canada in August, when we can cruise, so we will be doing it on Carnival Magic from Norfolk this year. I am not all that unusual in liking both lines. While there are a lot of Carnival-only diehards, I’ve met lots of folks on Carnival cruises that also enjoy Celebrity, but not as many the other way, or at least who will admit it. 😀

I just booked Hyatt Place via ValueTrips based on this thread, so thanks! Our confirmed rate was $149. If I were to book on the Hyatt website without advanced payment, the member rate for that night is $292. The savings seems nearly too good to be true. And what has happened to hotel prices? They've nearly doubled in the past few years. We look for inexpensive for pre-cruise as we generally don't arrive until evening, then leave first thing in the morning. There's no such thing any more, and it's everywhere, not just FL. Heck, I am paying $220 plus tax for a Hilton Garden Inn before our cruise from Norfolk. Sorry for being a crotchety old whiner, but sheesh!

Detailed here: https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/updated-captains-club-brochure-v6.pdf

It may be a foreign government requirement, not the cruise line, and all cruise lines have some form of this. Rather than maintaining a list of countries and their ever-changing requirements, it's easier to just have a requirement. This is from https://www.usa.gov/travel-documents-children This concerned me when my son was young. He was internationally adopted and is of a different race. All it would take is one port agent getting a wild hair. I always had all my documents in order, maybe not in hand, but scans I could easily produce if needed. We always travel with passports. Only once did I have a care. My son was about 4 and we were returning from a cruise. The US Customs agent asked him who I was. My son answered that I was Mom and we went on our way. He has been asked in airports also.