cyntil8ing

We used Uber. It cost 9€.

Oops, never mind. I got my ports confused.

We are a very mixed family for WCMC. One orders it every night, one orders it if there’s nothing else more appealing, one gets it maybe once per year, and one no thank you, ever!

On 4/14/2023 at 1:02 AM, Cruise5life said:

Yeah and I bet they hated every minute they were in those penguin suits.   
im sure you made them wear them lol.  

Not the person you're responding to, but in my family, it's the men who are the fashionistas (or would that be fashionistos?). They're both excited to get new formalwear for our Harmony cruise this summer. 

On Silhouette last week, it was Brugal 1888. The other drink is an Azteca.

This sounds awful. I am aghast they made you continue the excursion.

Years ago, I was injured on a private excursion in St Lucia. Same thing — no first aid kit and nothing except sympathy. I had a small kit with antibiotic cream to clean up that I always keep in my backpack. Former Girl Scout who is always prepared! I too ended up canceling my next day’s excursion. It was not a good experience! I would have expected more from a ship’s excursion.
 

Hope you are all recovered!

Perfect track record with folding and stapling. No holders, no packing tape, no zip ties. We don’t even write our name. Life on the edge of chaos.

Thanks. I had the offer on my Freedom card. Just put $100 to my 2024 Greenland cruise.

Last summer, we booked a private excursion with Spain Day Tours. We went to Sintra for a few hours, then stopped in Cascais where we had lunch and visited the beach before returning to the ship. It was 436€ plus tip for the full day. A partial day may be less. 

They also offer a shared small group excursion but we wanted some beach time, so we decided to go privately. See https://www.spaindaytours.com/lisbon-tours/lisbon-sintra-estoril/

duplicate 

2 hours ago, Cayman1 said:

Beautiful family and looks like you had a blast. Love the pic with Captain Kate! She seems to be a great captain and very personable.

Thank you. My son had a crush on her back then. Lol. We were lucky enough to sail with her three times in 2019. Twice on Equinox during the summer, and then on Edge for Christmas. One of the summer cruises was my daughter’s 16th birthday and she and all the officers sang to her at the Cruise Critic party. She also gave them both a Bug pin.

1 hour ago, Cayman1 said:

If it makes a difference, we are looking to book for a Christmas cruise. 
 

Thank you for the replies thus far. 

We were on Celebrity Edge for Christmas 2019. Probably my favorite cruise of all time! We have also done Christmas on Carnival in 2017 and RCCL in 2021. Lots of families, yes, but not crazy.

Photos, Celebrity Edge, Christmas 2019

To minimize foot traffic near or cabin, we usually choose a cabin right in the middle of the hallway. We figure most people behind us will go aft and most people ahead of us will go forward. Worst ever cabin booking mistake was across from the self service laundry on Carnival Pride. Never, ever again!

My kids, age 16 and 19, prefer Celebrity over Royal Caribbean. But they prefer Carnival over Celebrity. They have been on about 8 each Carnival and Celebrity and 4 on Royal, but never yer on Oasis class. We are trying Harmony this summer.

My kids are quiet, laid back, content to hang with us, enjoy dining in the dining room, like the shows and other entertainment. They have never been kids club fans even though they have been cruising since ages 3 and 5. They usually manage to make some friends on board.

I think it comes down to how much your daughter needs to be entertained vs how well she entertains herself. If she doesn’t care about the water slides and bumper cars, she will enjoy Celebrity.

My 19 year old loves the Solarium on Celebrity and loves to complain that Carnival’s somewhat-equivalent, Serenity, is 21 and over.

We were in7356, which had two poles. It wasn’t an issue.

We were on the Pride in Europe last summer. We are a family of four with two teens. We spent four days in London pre-cruise. We pre-purchased premium internet for all four of us (yes, expensive!).

On the ship, we went into airplane mode and connected to the ship wi-fi. Even without an internet package, if you want to use the app onboard to book dining, etc, you will need to do this.

The premium internet was perfect, always available and at speeds that we never had any issues, including Netflix and Spotify. We had the value plan for a Caribbean cruise last year and it was pretty unusable, except for email, so we upgraded.

Pre-cruise in London and in ports, we used the AT&T international day plan. It was $10 for the first phone, and $5 for the rest. We didn't all use it every day. I'd always ask myself if it was worth $5 just to post that photo to Facebook. Most of the time, I would wait until we got back on the ship. 🙂 

Also, don't forget to make sure wi-fi calling is enabled for the phone beforehand. That will enable calls and messages to get through onboard, including those pesky account validation texts.

This is true for minor children too. They will have the same points as mom and dad until they turn 18. At 18, they keep the family status, but revert to their own earned points. 

I am on a Mac, so my buttons probably look different than yours, but to the right insidethe address bar, there is a magnifying glass icon. Click on it to pop-up the zoom, then click Reset.

Alternatively, you can press Control minus repeatedly.

5 hours ago, Ladybug18 said:

Great photos! It looks like you and your family had a wonderful day in Amsterdam! Do you do any other fun things in Amsterdam?

We did the canal cruise, visited the Anne Frank House with the introductory program (which I highly recommend!) and the Van Gogh Museum. Very busy day!

You're lucky that your port is move convenient. That was a lesson learned for us when booking European cruises. It was the same with "Brussels". The port was actually in Zeebruge, which was closer to Bruges, but still a 20 minute transfer. Brussels was over an hour away.

We had an issue using our credit card on the tram. The Chase credit card we used required a signature, so the tram driver could not accept it, but he waived us on without paying. I did have a Capital One debit card that probably would have worked.

5 hours ago, NJLochness said:

Celebrity seems to be worried about the climate so why are they not using electric ships?

Or maybe they should consider wind powered ships.

Last summer, we pre-booked a canal boat ride with Flagship Amsterdam. I was very pleased. The boats were small compared to some of the others we saw, and very conveniently located. We picked it up right outside the Anne Frank House. Had the weather not been as lovely as it was, the uncovered boat might have been a problem. We had reserved 10:00, but arrived early, so we jumped on a 9:45 departure without issue. Others purchased their tickets on board. 

Our ship docked in Ijmuiden, not Amsterdam, so we pre-booked a taxi for the 45 minute ride.

 No. You would have to go inside, and cross at the front (behind the theater) and rear (in front of the dining room) of the ship. But very close.

I am late finding this post, but I wish you a wonderful cruise! I know your next door neighbors can’t possibly be as great as those you had on honeymoon #1.😃

4 minutes ago, Ronaldo807 said:

So you got a better deal compared to what you expected to get? What number did you call? I know it's one of those luck of the draw deals.

800-760-0654

14 minutes ago, Ronaldo807 said:

How did you get the $13.99/day price? The standard difference between the packages now is $20 and on the cruise planner for my sailing, it's an $18 difference. Was the difference only $13.99 for your sailing? 

I misspoke earlier that the Elite discount was taken from the $13.99. That WAS the discounted price. The package difference shows as $18.00 for my cruise. With the 15% Elite discount, I was expecting it to be $15.30 plus gratuities.

22 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

@cyntil8ingThanks for the link!  A ton of useful information.  I was on the cruise before you last year. Were any of the ports tender ports? It doesn't look like it from the information that you posted. 

No, no tender ports. I remember reading about your cruise and the issues you had with boarding right before we left for London. We were very lucky, with no issues at all.