WorcesterPear

A vote from me for taking the Metro to Ponte Mammolo and going down the stairs at the terminal station/ shopping centre to catch the local Cotral bus to Tivoli. You get off the bus very close to the entrance for Villa D’Este    

We we spent about 3 hours exploring Villa D’Este which is magnificent but the gardens do involve ascending and descending sets of sometimes slippery steps between the various levels.  But well  worth it! 

After an excellent lunch we we took a local taxi to Villa Adriano but we were very rushed as we were afraid of missing the return  bus which we wanted to catch back to Mammolo, so we didn’t do it justice. Husband says that means we have to make a return visit to Tivoli and start at Adriano next time! 

The local buses take a pleasant scenic route and are an experience in themselves, and everyone we met was really helpful in directing us to the appropriate bus stops. 

For much of my professional career I travelled alone Internationally extensively by air and rail and managed on a cabin roller and a brief case. -  a  smart charcoal grey trouser  suit and black high heeled boots  plus lots of pretty silk shirts and scarves gets you through in most settings. 

In retirement we have enjoyed the luxury of leisure travel and on transatlantics and cruises from Southampton I have been guilty of up to three checked suitcases of clothes on a “ just in case “ basis.

HOWEVER.... it was a real eye opener after our fabulous May 2022 Baltic cruise on Silhouette to find on our return that we had taken 2 large cases plus 2 carry ons and that we had more than a full case of clothes and shoes that we didn’t wear.  We ate in Murano every evening in (clean) smart and stylish outfits on a mix and match basis and changed into fresh clothes every day for shore excursions and sent out laundry every 2 days. Most of the “just in case” clothes could have stayed in the case!

With the uncertainties of baggage handling on international flights for the foreseeable future our September Reflection cruise we will be ba)ck to flying in with only the roller cabin bags and a personal bag each. We will be restricted to 10kg each in the roller cabin bags and I can easily lift that into the overhead bins without endangering anyone!

I really hope that things improve at international airports in the future, but I think that at present prudence advises avoiding checked luggage  if possible. 

We also seem to have drawn the short straw on the Solstice / Millennium switch about.

For our cancelled Spring 2023 Japan cruise in an S1 Suite on Solstice we asked for the “Lift and Shift” option . 

Celebrity have responded that they were only offering “Lift and Shift” for the cancelled cruise to the  2  directly similar cruises in 2024 - but that they were not offering us anything at all except a refund as “they have run out of S1 suites on both of the replacement cruises! “ !!! 

Our Travel Agent argued for us to be offered “Lift and Shift” to alternative Asia Cruises, but Celebrity absolutely refused to offer anything. except a refund of our deposit. 

We are very very close to the magic 3000 and will actually achieve the fabled Zenith’ level on completing our forthcoming May 2022 cruise, but we are feeling rather cross about the  shabby treatment from Celebrity arising from their actions in this botched and muddled Solstice/ Millennium switch round. 

Thank you for the heads up..  off topic, but I recall that you have previously indicated that you are sailing in the new Sunset Suite- how have you found it? 

The latest announcement from Boris is that International Travel will not be permitted until at least 17 May, after a review to be undertaken by 12 April. How will this interface with the published Celebrity Silhouette sailings from Southampton from 5 May? 

Currently in an S3 on deck 12- I can confirm that it is definitely not connected in any way whatsoever to any other stateroom or suite. There is no shared mini hallway and we open directly onto the corridor. 

Super quiet with no noise from above  - except during the big storm earlier in the cruise !

and very convenient for Luminae, the Retreat and the sun deck. 

We are currently on the Edge Transatlantic and having a fabulous time in an S3 on the corner of the track of the Magic Carpet. The suite is very spacious and the balcony is very large with plenty of room for 2 loungers plus 2 very comfortable chairs and a drinks table. We have no interference from the Magic Carpet to our enjoyment of the balcony.

The bathroom is excellent with a Roman bath / shower combination and a separate toilet cubicle.The suite itself has plenty of sitting space with a chaise longe type sofa , a leather covered pouffe, a round stool and a desk chair as well. There is ample storage both in hanging space and in drawer space.

We initially booked an S1 corner Aft in mid 2018 for this cruise when Edge first came out, - but with no drinks package, no gratuities  and no OBC! However we switched this summer just before Final Payment as we were offered a deal on the S3 which included these three perks, plus the airfare for about £5k less than we were going to pay just for the S1 without the airfare! 

We haven't regretted it for one minute! The S3 is midship, and it is so easy to get to all of the suite amenities such as Luminae, The Retreat and the Suites Sundeck via the forward lifts, with the aft lifts taking you directly to Eden, the Plaza and Al Baccio! By contrast, some friends who are in an aft S1 have commented that they do feel quite a way away from the suite amenities which are  all at the front of the ship. 

Our butler, Hilario, has been excellent and most attentive.

We would definitely be very happy to book an S3 again on the Edge. 

I too look forwards to  having the pleasure of your company on the forthcoming Edge Transatlantic voyage on 1st November. I have really enjoyed reading your previous commentaries and love your enthusiasm, wry wit, and enjoyment of life.

We have taken several East bound transatlantic voyages but this will be the first West bound with the luxury of gaining rather than loosing time!  The suite life on Edge has been so well described in various posts by our estimable fellow CC contributor               VT Cruising that I have high hopes of being spoiled rotten for the whole trip. 

Thank you in anticipation of what I am sure will be an excellent read!

Dear VT, you are so lovely in your reassurance to me that I will not be left languishing in a sad corner of Luminae without alcoholic refreshment, and I have been really impressed with your very helpful and comprehensive Edge reviews. 

But my point here is that I don’t want to have to merely tell the sommelier the generic type of wine that I want, but to have at least the same published options as afforded to those dining in Blu, of having clearly listed specific options within the Classic Package other than just the Rose. 

I shall resort to bringing a photocopy of the Blu wine list with me, and asking very sweetly and in my most dulcet and persuasive “Downton Abbey” tones for specific Classic Package offerings therefrom. 

Again, thank you so much for your wonderful insights into the delights that await us on the Edge. 

We always cruise in suites on Celebrity and if we have Royal suites we have the included  premium package,  but otherwise , coming from the U.K., we don’t often get the 4 perks including the Premium Package offered as a matter of routine, but our offers do frequently include the Classic instead for Sky and Celebrity suites. 

My concern is that on our July Infinity Cruise the Luminae wine list included several options within the Classic limits, which meant I could order from a listed choice of several wines without feeling like a pauper for not having the dizzy heights of the Premium package! On our forthcoming Edge TA  I don’t really want to throw myself like Cinderella on the tender mercies of the Luminae sommelier to find me something which I can afford- I just think that at the very least the same greater number of published options for the Classic Package by the glass shown as in the Blu wine list should be published and clearly available for Luminae . I shall await the arrival of the Luminae wine list with due humility for having my humble Classic Package! 

Thank you so much for sharing the revised Luminae menu and the wine list . 

I am a little concerned to see that there only appears to be one by the glass option- a rose wine- which comes within the Classic Package limit on the Luminae wine list; whereas I understand that there are several on offer on the Blu wine list. Oh well, Rose it will be then! 

Love trivia competitions!  Met my husband at a charity quiz about 30 years ago when one of his pals took me along to supposedly boost their team! We always do the shipboard trivia’s when we cruise and enjoy teaming up with folk from different countries so that we all learn something new. It is great fun whether we win or lose, and the “trivia crowd” on a progressive Transatlantic Cruise trivia have always been delightful. It’s a shame if folks cheat, as it is a fun activity with nice people having fun together. 

We have found that Celebrity provides an excellent Suite experience for all suite guests. We have enjoyed Royal Suites on Century, Reflection, Solstice and Constellation, Celebrity Suites on Constellation and Silhouette, the “old” Sky Suites on Century and Galaxy and more recently SS1 suites on Equinox, Eclipse and Reflection.

We have just enjoyed 2 weeks in a CS on Silhouette, and loved the angled balcony and found that the sitting room had oodles of room for the 2 of us, with plenty of space to get round and lots of storage for everything. Our butler and room steward were superb and second guessed my every need! And the Michael’s Club folks had my drink to hand as soon as I walked in!

We found the RS on Constellation earlier this year to be more to our liking than the RS last year on Reflection, in particular that the “balcony bathtub “ jacuzzi on Reflection was a waste of space, whereas at least you could use it on Constellation!

The Suite Life is indeed sweet on Celebrity!

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We have sailed in Sky suites on Celebrity on many ships including Galaxy, ( the old “top deck” suites) and on Infinity, Equinox and Reflection and also in a “new” Penthouse Suite on NCL Pride of America.

The NCL suite had a very large balcony which was great for the Hawaii trip, but we thought that the NCL Penthouse suite itself was nothing special. It was a largish cabin with a curtain around the bed, a sofa at the foot of the bed- and a coffee machine, which we never used. It supposedly came with butler service, but we never saw him at all during the week we were on board. The cabin furnishings were rather garish for my taste.

We have never sailed in the NCL Haven, so perhaps that experience is better, but we certainly were not overly impressed with Pride of America “new” Penthouse. But I do appreciate that the ambiance on POA is supposedly different from most of the NCL ships.

However we have always really loved the aft Sky one suites on Celebrity, particularly the corner aft suites on the S Class, which are light and airy with masses of room- love the big round porthole in which I can sit to watch the world go by, and love the wrap around balcony.

The combination of the light airy Sky suite, Michaels Club and Luminae is excellent .

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I can also confirm that all of the families who have dined with small children in Luminae whilst we have been there have also been charming, and the children well behaved and under control.

With regards to the folks who push past others in lifts and who race to get seats etc, I always comment, in cheerful, exaggerated and audible tones “ gosh, you must be in a real hurry to get somewhere, so please, after you!” This usually provokes a giggle from the others in the lift!

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We have given drinks and nibbles parties many times in Sky S1, Celebrity and Royal Suites, and each time we have discussed our plans with our butler and each time they have well exceeded our expectations!

Given enough notice, a mouthwatering display of food has appeared and the wine and champagne which we ordered has been served to our guests with panache by our butler, and we have tipped handsomely afterwards to show our appreciation.

There is ample room in the S1 suites on the Solstice class for 10 people to enjoy your hospitality, although some may need to sit on the edge of the bed! Go for it! Your butler will delight in demonstrating his or her skills!

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I sympathise with the OP, as we had a similar situation a few years back of being ignored in Murano for nearly 30 minutes while all of the staff waited on a very large extended table of about a dozen of ships staff and the professional entertainers. We were left with our wine, but no food! We were not at all happy, and tried to attract a waiter- any waiter!- to come and deliver our meal.

The Maitre D apologised profusely and invited us back the following night , promising to make it up to us. We accepted and we did have stellar service the following evening.

However, my wife is extremely allergic to both strawberries and chocolate, which was notified on our booking and which Luminae and our butler took great care to ensure that neither strawberries nor chocolate did not go anywhere near her- however this information seemed not to have reached Murano as they sent a tray of chocolate covered strawberries to our suite with a note of apology! Our butler removed them pronto!

When we returned to Murano for the follow up meal, the Maitre D insisted on personally making a table side crepe Suzette for my wife, - with no strawberries!

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We have just returned from a wonderful 3 weeks taking a 14 day cruise on Constellation after spending a week pre cruise in Singapore. The cruise was Singapore to Vietnam, HongKong, Manila, Boracay, Kota Kinabalu and back to Singapore.

Pre Cruise: We stayed at the Park Royal on Beach Road, in an Orchid Club Room and were thoroughly pampered. The Orchid Club food was local as well as international, and the baby octopus starter in particular was scrumptious, and the Club staff were great. The room was spacious with a balcony and view across to the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Area. We have visited Singapore previously for both business and pleasure and we met up with Singapore based friends as well as making good use of our MRT e-z passes to get around, as well as taking taxis. I am not at all a fan of shopping but browsing in China Town and around Arab Street is fascinating in its own right. We also joined a couple of free walking tours with a local guide and a friendly group of International fellow visitors which gave unusual insights into the history and cultural background of Singapore.

Embarkation: we took a taxi to the cruise centre and were whisked through to be escorted onto the ship by the charming Nadia from Michaels Club. We met Joao and left the carryons with him and enjoyed a very nice lunch of seafood brochettes and Chardonnay in Luminae. We then met our butler Gene and cabin assistant Radon, who settled us in and offered to arrange anything else which we might need.

Suite: we had a Royal suite, having bagged an excellent price on an early booking. We had very much enjoyed Royal suites previously on Century and on Reflection. The layout of the Constellation Royal Suite was different, it had an enormous balcony and I thought that the balcony layout on Constellation was much better than on Reflection and the hot tub was better sited and more user friendly on Constellation. The ox-eye window in the bedroom was great fun, and we appreciated the spacious sitting room separate from the bedroom so that I could be up and about and catch up on world news on the TV without disturbing my sleeping husband.

The bathroom has been refurbished and I loved the behind the door glass shelving storage, and the powerful separate walk in shower. We did not use the light up jacuzzi bathtub, as it has rather high sides and we prefer to walk into a shower. It did not have the additional mini bathroom of the Royal suites on the S Class ships, but the bathroom was very spacious and was fine for the two of us.

The suite has tons of storage cupboards and also has a walk in wardrobe with loads of hanging spaces and shelving for shoes and handbags. I loved the vanity unit in the bedroom with the unobtrusive under desk array of different International electrical sockets. There was also a really useful separate working desk unit in the sitting room.

The suite was immaculately kept by Radon, and flowers and champagne appeared during the cruise as gifts from various folks. Gene kept my husband topped up with beer and ice buckets, and on our last sea day we held a small get together with cruise friends and he laid on a lovely spread of cheese and crudités and served us the champagne which I had been given. We had also ‘self quarantined ‘ on one day as my husband had been sneezing and wheezing , and we ordered our dinner from the MDR and Luminae menu and Gene delivered it for us to eat in the suite rather than be sneezing around other passengers. We watched the Winter Olympics after dinner curled up in the suite with glasses of Chardonnay ( there is a theme here!) while it was over 30 degrees outside! Joao checked on us to make sure we were Ok and I had plenty of Sudafed which sorted out the sneezing and wheezing.

Activities: we are trivia addicts, and we quickly met up with a smashing set of fellow addicts from the US, Australia, and England and enjoyed the fun and cameraderie engendered by the quizzes delivered by the lovely Gina and Gigi . We won a few times and had a load of fun. There was a hiccup for a couple of occasions- not down to Gina or Gigi in any way- when the ship had double booked trivia sessions into venues where something else was already happening- but this got sorted out. We did not do the art auctions, or the casino and had to catch up with the Podium Speakers on the TV as they were scheduled at the same time as Trivia. My husband and some of our trivia mates also did the archery on the last sea day, and loved it. We watched the officers v guests pool ball game and applauded cruise director Rich when he gamely joined in fully clothed to make up the team!

Entertainment: maybe I am easily pleased but we really enjoyed all of the theatre shows, with Monique and The Three Kings being particularly good. The entertainment around the ship was also excellent, with the Sea Breeze ‘modern classical’ violin duo and the easy listening pair Soph & Simon being outstanding. They played around the ship including in Michaels Club and Al Bacio- we really enjoyed a post dinner coffee listening to them.

Excursions: we took ships tours in Vietnam and Kota due to the distances from the ports to the sights. The Mekong Delta Trip was very interesting, and we loved the boat ride bits, but were less enamoured with the 3 hour coach trip each way to get there! We loved the Kota Trip, and were most impressed with the tour content and the city itself. We have visited Hong Kong before, ( we still had time on our Octopus passes) so we used the MRT and visited Lantau Island and the cable car by ourselves and enjoyed the frenetic pace of Hong Kong as everyone readied themselves for Chinese New Year. However, we understood from cruise friends who were on ships tours that the crowds thronging the city for New Year did cause some problems with the logistics of getting ships tours to the popular tourist sites. We were going to visit the IntraMuros in Manila, however this was the day that my husband felt really poorly, so we stayed on the ship- I went to Trivia, and then sunbathed on the balcony with my kobo and enjoyed the hot tub, and he stayed in bed to sweat out the sneezes and wheezes.

Food: we found Luminae excellent. The Maitre D was the lovely Russell, who was supported by an outstanding team. Our waiter was usually Stephen, assisted by Zaphora, and they were superb. I have Crohns and Stephen combed the Luminae and MDR menus for me to identify interesting but safe options for me. The only criticism I can make is that even when I asked for a small portion of an entree, it was still enormous! My husband was kept well supplied with a range of strong red wines by the sommelier, and a ‘special bottle’ of Tokai was produced to give me a glass with each meal. We also ate in Sushi on Five, which we both loved, and Tuscan which I found was far too heavy for me.

Michaels Club: the team of Suite Manager Lucy, Concierge Joao and his assistant Nadia could not have been bettered, they were charming, attentive and fun! They anticipated everything you might need, offered to book things, arranged a future cruise appointment, booked the taxi to get back to the Airport post cruise and printed out boarding passes. They arranged excellent entertainment in Michaels Club, and soon got it full of cruisers each evening, introducing us to fellow cruisers and to the ships officers. We met the charming Milana the Guest Relations Manager, Hanna the Retail Manager, as well as the Finance Manager and iT Manager and the Maritime Officers. As an accountant I had a really interesting discussion with the Finance Manager about the systems . There was also a Silent Disco one evening in Michaels which was a real hoot!

The stars of Michaels Club are also Victoria and Erlinda who kept us constantly supplied with beverages and canapés. I recommend Victoria’s delicious Brandy Alexander!

We also went down to Michaels several times for the afternoon tea ( or in my case Champagne!) and scones. We much prefer going there to the old arrangement of the Suites Trolley mid afternoon.

Public Areas: the lounges, restrooms, theatre and bars were in good order and were very clean. There was some saving of sun beds by leaving towels and flip flops out, but the pool butlers were in evidence and I saw them remove some offending items to enable folks seeking beds to be accommodated. I was also delighted to meet Dave the Travelling Barman on the 11deck, as he took round his cart of beers etc while folks sunbathed. I was also delighted to have the offer of fruit sorbets from a charming waiter going around the sundecks after lunch , even though I couldn’t have it.

Overall, we had a great time, visiting some lovely places, with a great crew and we met some delightful new cruise friends.

We love the afternoon tea served by the butlers in Michael’s Club, and find it so much nicer than the old tea trolley rounds of the suites. We get to chat with fellow Michael’s habituees and meet other butlers as well as our own, while enjoying scones and cream with Champagne- delightful!

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Our Reflection TA is getting very close now, - we are in a Royal Suite- and we have also heard nothing from the concierge.

On previous trips we would have had an email from the Michaels Club Concierge by now to ask about cooler set up etc. I didn't expect a phone call to England, but disappointed that the Concierge emails also now seem to be falling by the wayside., whether they come from the ship or the shore.