Coolcruise02

I just booked this ship excursion during the Black Friday sale...... 50% off!

Thank you!

I would love to hear what you did in Kavala and Thessaloniki. DIY? Ship tours? Did you write any reviews?

Yes, we are planning on visiting Philippi, 30 minutes from Kavala and then 1.5 hrs from Philippi to Gotse, Bulgaria. We are in port from 8-6.

#1 reason for going to Bulgaria is one of our group lived there #2 it's not that we are "not tempted" to stay in Greece but our cruise has many stops-Kavala-Thessaloniki-Volos-Athens #3 if we wanted to do this tour, it would be better from Thessaloniki

Thank you! I have read the traffic backups can be bad so I was wondering if anyone had firsthand experience.

We have a port stop in Kavala Greece and would like to go to Bulgaria. (US passport) Does anyone have experience or advice on crossing the border at Exochi/Ilinden? Also, any recommendations for a driver or tour company? I tried looking for a mini-van to rent but since there are 6 of us, and I'm not having any luck. Thanks!

Does anyone know from past history with Celebrity, will any of the excursion discounts change over the next week? On my cruise excursion list, all have different discounts ranging from 15% to 50%.

Thanks for your review and all the helpful info!

Thanks for the review. Can't wait to see your pics!

San Diego embarkation was not good in February 2023! Staff had no clue.

Nice informative review. I will agree with you on the Navigator app! Tried it for a few days and then it quit working. I went to guest services and a nice young lady spent 20 min working on it. I think she said she reloaded the app. Anyway, it worked for a few more days and quit again. We gave up!

I would rather put any questionable items in my carry-on. Had to go looking for my checked bag one time that had a small fan (that was acceptable). What a hassle. Now I put it in my carry-on bag and no problems.

That was my thought after it was explained to me that HAL uses an outside agency. It is still their responsibility to provide and require good training.

My advice for the lei making is to get there EARLY! There are limited chairs/tables and supplies. I loved the hulu lessons and they were very crowded. The coloring activity is a joke.

I guess it surprises me that HAL would want their customers to have such a bad experience to start a cruise. This was my first cruise post covid so I was surprised at the disorganization. I had sailed out of S.D. before and never had this kind of chaos. IF I sail with HAL again, I would definitely know what to expect. After reading reviews of Vancouver embarkation it does sound like this is now the norm. I did not let the frustrating embarkation ruin the cruise, as we had an awesome time. But, believe me, it was the talk of the ship as it involved everyone in some way.

Boatdrill just explained it in the post above mine, but thanks. And yes, I do expect the staff to be trained by HAL or their representative. After all, they are representing HAL.

Thanks for explaining that!! Seems like a poor way to do business, when you let someone represent you that you have not trained. The customer suffers in the long run.

How can they not be trained by HAL? No matter who "hires" them they are representing HAL and HAL is responsible for embarkation. I can't believe that HAL would be negligent in not having "trained by them" employees that were checking documents and boarding papers. And yes, those people were confused, making mistakes and giving out incorrect info. Yes, I did go with the flow and did not get upset and had a wonderful cruise but I'm tired of the blame being put on the port employees!

I'm sorry but embarkations are HAL's responsibility! We also dealt with a horrible mess at San Diego and the people given wrong info had HAL name tags on. They were the ones controlling lines and directing people incorrectly.

YES, SAN DIEGO! You are talking in circles. I am talking about the embarkation mess in San Diego and a few pages back you said there was no problem in S.D. last year and I'm posting that this year there is a problem. You were mentioning loading luggage and food in a post where embarkation was being discussed. I'm done here. Go to our roll call and you can read about the horrible mess that everyone experienced, even 4 and 5 star. Defend HAL all you want but they are to blame for the mess. FYI, despite embarkation we had a great cruise.

I will agree there were a lot of 4 & 5 star but they were the ones most upset that they were NOT allowed to board early as the HAL rep outside wasn't aware of that policy. I'm sorry but loading luggage and food has nothing to do with passenger embarkation.

What difference does it make how long the cruise is? They are trying to board 2600-2700 people on every cruise.

We cruised out of San Diego in February on the Koningsdam and the embarkation was horrible!!

I would have to hear from one of their passengers as to what they experienced. I can only relay what happened at San Diego and it was HAL employees (with name tags) who were misdirecting people and did not check that people in line were on the right ship or had correct boarding times. They had no clue on basic procedures.