Scrappytraveller

Hi guys,

Can I jump in here? It's time to get serious, signed up for WW online this morning. I'm up over 10 lbs since our Hawaii cruise, everything is tight and uncomfortable. It was a long and bad winter!

General consensus - avoid the Rib Eye!

On the Solstice in September, my friend Bill told us how bad the Rib Eye was at Tuscan on his last cruise. He said he would be ordering something else. Along came the waiter and wouldn't you know it, he ordered the rib eye. :rolleyes: It was exactly as described above, very thin and overcooked. We teased him about it the rest of the cruise. :D

If I remember correctly, rib eye was on the menu somewhere else later in the cruise, and when he asked about it the waiter said they could not serve it cooked less than Medium. That was enough for Bill to avoid making the same mistake a 3rd time. ;)

Seriously though, I'm sad to read this because Tuscan was the only restaurant I was still willing to pay for on my upcoming Equinox cruise. With the price increase and the decline in quality, I don't think I'll bother unless a deep discount is offered. I'm tired of Murano and don't think Silk Harvest is worth more than a $15 fee.

I will keep that in mind. I am sure we will have newbie written all over us since everyone in our group is a first time Celeibrity cruiser.

Oh sorry, that's not what I meant. :o The newbies I was referring to are the wait staff. Service is quite weak back there, plus you really feel you've been stuck in a corner. There's no atmosphere at all back there. But don't worry about it too much, I'm sure you'll find things you like and don't like but you'll have an amazing trip. Enjoy!

Don't accept a table all the way in the back on the port side, it's newbie central.;)

I don't like it either, mainly because it makes it hard for families or friends to cruise together if they don't all have the same spending level. You could have a couple in Aqua class with travel companions in a regular cabin. The Aqua couple can't enjoy a perk they paid for, Blu, unless they're willing to not eat with their group. I would prefer a setup where Aqua or suite guests would have free access to all non-MDR restaurants but the rest of the passengers could go if they were willing to pay a charge. Then there would be more flexibility.

I also don't like permanent "off limits" outdoor areas on a cruise ship. Not happy if they're going to restrict my access to the Solstice deck (I'm assuming), often the only quiet outdoor space on the ship. Now where am I going to hide? :p:D

There's still a benefit though to booking in CDN. I booked recently and the price in CDN worked out to an exchange rate of about 1.075, which was much better than the daily rate of about 1.10 (plus conversion fee). In my case I wasn't finding great deals for OBC, so it was to my advantage to just book it and not have to worry about the dollar.

The PCC told me I could transfer the booking to a TA at any time until final payment if a good offer comes up, but I'm not sure I could transfer it to U.S. agent. Since CDN agents give little or nothing, I'll likely stay with what I've got.

So unless you have a good offer from a TA, call NCL and see what their CDN price is. Do the math before booking.

A taxi with tip is in the $80 range. Another option is to rent a car for the day, the drive to Miami is pretty easy.

Did you also book a transfer to the port with your cruise and flights? It's a long way to the port from Rome, you have to figure out how you're getting there. Once you're there, you won't be going back to Rome. The port area (Civitavecchia) is cute, you can easily have a wander along the waterfront and around the main area.

As for the flights, I'd check your initial booking emails. Usually you get a PDF attachment and that should show a reference number in the part that lists your flights. You may have to call each airline though to get THEIR reference number in order to pick seats and check in online.

Thank you so much, this really helps. Looking forward to it!

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Hello Campolady. Would you recommend going to the castle late afternoon and staying to watch the sunset at the Parador? Do you think it's wise to take the #35 bus after dark? I can't find a schedule for the bus to confirm that it still runs after the castle has closed. Could we easily get a cab if not, or would it be crazy expensive?

We're docked from 11:00-9:00. My tentative plan for the day is this:

- walk to cathedral (~ 1hr including the gardens?)

- walk to Roman Theater and Alcazaba (~2 hours? No idea how long...)

- walk up to castle (~30min) and walk all around walls (~1hr)

- walk down to Parador for sunset (should be around 6:20 at the end of October, per the internet)

- take #35 bus back to port area and wander around a bit before getting back on board

Is there any other spot you recommend for the sunset in case we decide to reverse the plan and take the bus straight up to the castle?

I love to walk and it can take me longer than most because I stop constantly for pictures. There may be others in my group though who are not as eager to climb the hill.

Any other suggestions for things a photographer would not want to miss?

Thanks so much for helping us out on these boards. :)

Just to add though that she was more than willing to go grab a coke from the cafe if somebody wasn't in the mood for a drink.

The head Molecular bartender on the Eclipse over the holidays was a Jelena. I saw the same thing as Bobal - people being told they could not get anything other than the $12 molecular beverages at this bar.

They'll make you off-menu drinks, but they'll still charge you $12. They're still "fancy". They wouldn't be able to charge $12 for a gin and tonic. I think the idea is to keep the crowd small enough to manage, because those drinks take a while to make.

I'm a Brit who loves a Caeser! Our daughter is living in Calgary for a couple of years and we visited last September. Every time she said let's get a Caeser I thought she was talking about the salad! :D

I'm converted now and schlepped a huge amount of Clamato juice back with us to serve up Caesers to our friends on New Years Eve. They loved them too but the Clamato is all gone - now what do we do???

 

Adele :)

Adele, do an online search for "expat grocery stores in UK for Canadians and Americans", or something to that effect. There are stores in London that cater to expats, they'll ship clamato juice to you for a very good price. I converted my little English pal on my last cruise and had some shipped to her as a surprise. :)

If you like spicy, we got an off menu drink that translates to "spicy strawberry" at the molecular bar ("Fraisa Piquante"). The bartender also made one for me with bourbon that I really liked, but I can't remember the name of it. :confused:

Might be "Kentucky Derby"?

They also do an amazing apple martini at the molecular bar that puts the one at the martini bar to shame, because it's made with fresh juice. AND they'll do a great espresso martini for you there too. Have I mentioned I love the molecular bar? ;) Once you get to know the bartenders there, they are very willing to make special drinks for you based on what they think you'll like.

What they had on the Eclipse in December were small cans of pre-mixed Mott's Ceasar, not actual Clamato juice. I think they just poured it in a glass and added vodka. The Bloody Ceasar was good, not great. We still enjoyed it. And as Christine said, no celery salt or other rimmer. When I asked him to rim the glass, he used plain white salt, yuck! :p They never had celery, they'd usually put olives in it (which I quickly picked out, yuck again! :p:D).

We found it at the passport bar. They ran out a lot, the bartender told me Canadians were hoarding it in their cabins. :eek:

Hi Scott, we met way back in 2009 on the millenium. ;)

I can vouch for you here, you were perfectly nice guys with no negative attitude. I think you've made some really valid observations. You were lucky to be in Blu, you didn't see that this decline is very evident in the MDR as well.

 

- I suspect that with the new PICK YOUR PERK campaign, X may have renegotiated the compensation packages for bar employees. I say this because, for the FIRST TIME EVER ON ANY CRUISE, we witnessed several (about a half dozen) bartenders who were visibly angry throughout our sailing. No smiling, no thank you -- slamming bottles and appearing completely overwhelmed. This didn't do much to enhance our experience.

.

I can't agree more about this. First day on the solstice in September, the guy at the molecular bar was foul. First day on the eclipse dec 28th, the pool bartender who served us was grumpy and unfriendly. Martini bar staff are not fun and carefree like they used to be, they look grumpy a lot of the time (until they turn on the pouring show for the crowd to get some tips). I blame the 123 promo, no doubt. I actually prefer paying for drinks as I go.

I'm looking forward to seeing if there's a difference on my equinox transatlantic in October, since 123 doesn't apply to TAs. You guys should come! I'm hoping for a wonderful experience like we had on the silhouette TA in 2012. It's celebrity's last chance with me I'm afraid...

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Hi Laura! :) Hope your booking works out and that you have a great cruise.

If you're booking something last minute (after final payment), it's usually the "guarantee" rates that are drastically reduced. I wanted to point out that often the guarantee prices don't show up on Celebrity's website when you enter only 1 guest. Don't ask me why, it's so discriminatory. You need a travel agent to get that rate for you.

Not sure if I'm making sense... basically, say you look at a sailing on the Celebrity website and the interior category says "starting at $750". If you enter 2 people, you'll see the option of a guarantee cabin at $1,500 (for 2), plus all the categories where you can pick a specific room at a higher price. But if you enter 1 person, that guarantee cabin won't show up and you'll just see, for example, category 10 at $2,200. I guess because they're selling a cabin dirt cheap (to them), they want to avoid having only one spender in that cabin to make it worse for them.

It's not so much that the single "supplement" will be gone after final payment, but the prices will be more affordable for a solo passenger. Personally I don't expect to pay half the cost of a cabin because I'm alone, just like I'd never expect to pay half the listed rate for a hotel room. I wish Celebrity had some studio cabins, but that's another issue. Don't look at it as paying for 2, consider it paying for a cabin. Find a cabin that is affordable to you and try not to think about what others are paying.

this is just getting stupid. It's ending.. it's back!... hurry, it's ending! .... no wait it's back. :rolleyes: Just admit that it's permanent already.

One tip I have read is to leave the tv on the navigation channel with the camera on all night. Then when it starts to get light, you will know it!

Just off the Eclipse and I hate to tell you that the ship cam channel did not take up the full screen like it used to. The "view" was in a smaller box and there was a stupid scroll along on the bottom, like on a news channel. So if you leave it on all night now, it's bright like any other channel. :mad:

Having said that, I still woke up at my usual early time. This was my biggest worry with an inside cabin, that I'd lose all sense of time and sleep the morning away. For me the only thing I missed was not being able to see/feel the weather for myself in the morning, and not being able to see if there was going to be a decent sunset. I can live without those things.

Just off the Eclipse. Several diapered tots in the pool, children in hot tubs by themselves, even one kid in the solarium hot tub and pool. Only saw one staff member intervene one time, and that was because a woman grabbed him and told him what was going on with 3 unruly brats in a hot tub. One day I watched as one mother-of-the-year actually left her toddler in a hot tub alone, and her young daughter in the deep pool, while she went down to her cabin to get goggles for her kid. Guess we're all supposed to be lifeguards on our vacation. :rolleyes:

My credit card was charged an extra $22 after my recent Solstice cruise. I called to ask why and was told it was an "amenity" charge and she'd have to contact someone to find out what it was specifically. She called me back a couple of days later and said 2 pairs of binoculars were missing from the room. Funny, never saw any binoculars, never even knew we were supposed to have binoculars in a balcony cabin. The charge was reversed on my next credit card statement.

Not the end of the world, but I've read a few threads on CC about this type of thing so it does seem pretty common. Given I didn't find my cabin attendant very good to begin with and didn't leave any extra tip, it makes me wonder if it was intentional on her part.

(As an aside, she also refused to empty my mini bar.)

Had the opposite problem on the Solstice recently with select dining - the service was so rushed that we began dreading going to the MDR. We had a running joke about not putting your fork down to take a breather or your plate would be gone.

Interesting. I did book my cruise in USD, so maybe that's the issue.

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I just tried buying some. It was showing in $CDN (at $26) but when I got to the very end of the booking it was going to be in USD. No foreign exchange rate (or foreign transaction fee) benefit to buying OBC in advance. Darn it.

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Pretzel rolls? Do they really have those?

They better, or I'll start a mutiny!

On the NCL Epic they not only had rolls but also giant pretzel bread sticks - so evil!

I'm almost positive I had rolls on the Silhouette in December.

You need all the calories you can get but in my case, I have to be careful somewhere. I try my very best to ignore the bread basket at dinner. That and taking the stairs as much as possible are about the only things I do! :eek:

Maybe I'll try to walk.... maybe... oh who am I kidding, it won't happen.:p