fantasy51

Please clarify: Is Champ a stowaway, a lost child or a bona fide passenger?

(This whole thread has a real feel-good factor that makes me smile.)

Dance-wise, sequence is only a bit of fun, as ballroom dancing is the number one thing, and rightly so.

Sequence dancing, if done properly, can be quite serious dancing. There are a couple of sequence dances that are also in the old-time exam syllabus, and there is a lot of precision involved in dancing that. The problem is that most sequence dancing is learnt by a form of 'Chinese whispers' and is nowhere near the original.

I gather that the best way to learn dancing is to start with old-time, as that requires a lot of precision and will really set you up for the technique required for good ballroom dancing.

There are lots of hangars, but they are the thick wooden ones that take up a lot of space.

I was pleasantly surprise on my last cruise (my first Celebrity cruise) to find that there were no wooden hangers in the cupboard; they were all metal or plastic ones that took up very little space. We were also able to ask for more.

I was in an accessible cabin on Reflection in April/May. The room was a lovely size and we were really happy in it. It was a last-minute booking and all that were left were accessible rooms, so we felt we did very well.

I was initially concerned about storage. There is one double cupboard for hanging things. Our clothes were quite jammed in when we started but towards the end there was more space as David tended to leave his clothes 'hanging' on the couch! There are quite a few drawers in the unit under the TV, and these were useful. There are also 2 bedside units that will hold various things.

I would agree with those who suggest keeping some clothes in suitcases under the bed. David did a bit of that on a previous cruise. His spoken reasoning was that he wanted to leave as much space in the wardrobe for me as possible; the unspoken was that he couldn't be bothered hanging them up! There was plenty of space to pull out suitcases.

We had to ask the steward for extra hangers. The ones they brought us were generally wire hangers, so did not take up much space in the wardrobe.

Just to give you an idea of how much space there was, both of us had suitcases containing the full 23kg allowance, plus carry-on bags of 10kg. We tended to wear different outfits each evening, even if we wore the same clothes 2 or 3 times during the day.

Three years ago we had a similar situation but because of the health of two of our travellers, we decided we could not go into Venice itself. Luckily I was a member of Priority Pass and discovered that there is a lounge landside in Venice Airport. We waited out our hours there in privacy and comfort for a £15pp fee, until we could check in and go through security. I don't know what it would cost for people who are not Priority Pass members. It would be worth checking up. The landside lounge is a Travelex Business Centre. It was small and no-frills but it provided what we needed.

(I have tried to find the price for non-members but I am having no luck. I can't even find it on the Priority Pass site. It is possible the lounge is no longer available, but it is worth any interested people checking up on this.)

I have just checked the UK government site for Turkey and it says:

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to within 10 km of the border with Syria and to the city of Diyarbakir.

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to:

the remaining areas of Sirnak, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Diyarbakir, Kilis and Hatay provinces

Siirt, Tunceli and Hakkari

I have checked all of those places and none is near Istanbul. I therefore consider Istanbul to be relatively safe at this time. I will be there in about 2 months, so I hope it continues to be safe.

I thought this link contains an excellent description from an observer. I have copied the relevant part below the link.

http://mvwildblue.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/2016-13-cruise-ship-damages-city-float.html

About 1:30 the Pearl was leaving southbound in the big winds while the Celebrity Infinity waited patiently about a half mile north and astern of the Pearl. So with all the noise generated by the ships engines, thrusters, etc, we moved up to the pilot house to watch a professional un-docking and docking exercise.

The Pearl made a clean exit into the heavy winds. Then Infinity started approaching from the north. As she nosed her bow towards the City Float cruise ship dock, a big gust pushed her bow even further towards shore. Moored just to the north of City Float is the Zaandam. Having watched many a ship dock here in Ketchikan, it appeared to Alex, that Infinity was too close to shore, and too close to Zaandam! Alex stated this fact out-loud, but failed to start rolling the cell phone video. Darn!

Both the Infinity's stern and bow thrusters running hot apparently couldn't keep the ship from gaining towards shore and the moored Zaandam. A bow only starboard thrust would allow a soft landing square to the dock, but would push the stern to port and shore-ward, and since the Infinity's stern was overlapped with the forward part of Zaandam, a collision would occur. The pilot's only choice was to continue thrusting to starboard and moving forward.

When the forward sections of the Infinity hull ground into the City Float piling, a loud metal-on-metal noise could be heard. Once clear of Zaandam's bow, the stern thruster helped square up the boat. But the cruise ship dock, catwalk, piling, auxiliary inside float and Infinity's port side suffered.

Pepperrn, it is possible the system has changed since you self-disembarked. It is possible to do it at any time now. You just have to join whatever line is in place at the exit, or go along when there is no-one there.

I have done it a few times. On the first occasion a gentleman tried to tell me that with self-disembarkation we could head to the front of any queue that happened to be there. I did not believe that. In fact I checked up on it before my next cruise with self-disembarkation and was told that we join any queue at the end, as any reasonable person would expect.

You sound like a very caring and concerned daughter. I'm sure both of you will have a lovely time.

I only wish other daughters would show as much concern. I have twice had something to do with mother/daughter pairs, and each time I could see the daughter trying to foist her mother off onto other passengers so that she could do whatever she wished.

Have a great cruise. Proper planning, as you are doing, will help to iron out any problems you may encounter.

You have to know what you are doing with visas for Turkey. If you are in a ship that just visits Turkey for the day (or several different cities in Turkey) then you do not need a visa. This is organised with the cruise lines. When we flew into Istanbul last year we had to get a visa just for the journey from airport to cruise ship. This year we will fly out of Istanbul and have already been informed by Celebrity that we will need to get a visa.

I cruised on Celebrity last month and was most surprised to find that their main dining room was not open on port days. I took Cunard's standards for granted and expected the same of Celebrity. It was particularly galling given that on the first night at dinner our waiter had pointed out that the main dining room would be particularly busy at lunchtime on the next day (sea day) and we might want to avoid it. I therefore planned to go on the day when we had decided not to go into a port. No luck.

Here in the UK I once booked a cruise on a Friday and sailed on the Sunday. I don't know what the USA policy is but there was no problem for me with this late date as I live quite close to Southampton.

I booked that late because I was holding out for a last-minute bargain and the company was not prepared to discount solo prices when I phoned on the Tuesday. I had everything planned in my head so I knew what to do if the price was right. I had even collated details of the ports. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the last-minute rush.

Fantastic work! I am so pleased to see that you have added that amazing little feature that keeps the heading in place even as we scroll down and down. (I have seen it before on spreadsheets but have never needed to work out how to do it.)

I found the tram very easy, but I had help! I asked for guidance in the port and was told that I would need to get a token for the tram and I would need to pay for it in Turkish lira. However, I was told there was nowhere to change money until I got into the centre. I was fortunate in that a young lady was nearby and she took me under her wing, bought my token, got off at my stop with me and took me to a place to exchange my money. She then refused when I tried to repay her for my ticket and hers (which I had offered before we left) but graciously accepted some money when I asked her to give it to her favourite charity.

Coming home the tram was packed and I would have had trouble seeing out the window to find the correct spot. Fortunately a gentleman standing next to me helped, and told me when to get off.

In my first few cruises with Cunard I had one formal outfit, one semi-formal and a few casual outfits (black trousers with different tops). I felt happy with that, even on a 16-night cruise. Gradually over the years I have found more clothes and often take a different outfit for each night, even if it means skimping on daywear. I can even manage that on a fly cruise for 14 days! However, I recognise that I take all those clothes because I have them and because I want to, not because anyone onboard will notice if I wear the same clothes.

Enjoy!

It is also possible to book your own private transfers from the port. I did this on a recent cruise and it worked very well.

We travelled the afternoon before our cruise and booked a hotel in Civitavecchia. After lots of searching I found a shared shuttle that was prepared to take us at that time for £25 per person. We turned out to be the only people travelling to Civitavecchia at that time so we were sent by ourselves. A private shuttle of that type would normally cost double that amount.

Coming home we were in a shared shuttle for 8 people, costing €20 per person, organised through the roll call (Celebrity cruises - more active in such matters than Cunard). That was okay but we felt rather cramped as we were in the front with the driver. Also, the other 6 people in the shuttle knew each other and we felt somewhat left out.

This thread is VERY interesting. I have been taking a power strip on cruises for years. I did not realise there were any potential problems. I put it out on the desk in full view so the steward can see its use. It has never been confiscated.

On one cruise (on Cunard) I plugged in my cruise-only power strip and it shorted out the system. I had plugged it into a UK socket and none of the UK sockets worked, though the US ones did. I admit that I quickly hid the power strip and told my steward that there was a problem with the sockets. They were fixed by the time I returned from dinner. This was not a surge-protection strip. My hypothesis was that it had become damaged in transit. Perhaps I had it too close to the top of the suitcase and another case was thrown on top.

To me, the question is why?

I have never decorated my door and don't believe I ever will. However, here's one time when it would have helped.

On my cruise two weeks ago, my friend could not remember where the room was and walked up and down the corridor so many times that security spotted him and sent someone out to ask if there was a problem. He had even resorted to trying the doorkey in a number of strange doorways in the hope it was our room. It did not help that he could not remember if our room was 7141 or 7241 (or something). Anyway, they pointed him in the right direction and he finally found it.

I'm thinking I should suggest he decorate the door for our August cruise. :D

Money is money. It can always be exchanged or used in ports. On my Baltic cruise some years ago (when I was extremely new to tipping) I kept on the auto-tips but then used all my excess currency as tips to steward and waiters. It was in a variety of Baltic currency that I had bought in the UK before sailing. Because I used up excess currency, I ended up giving more as a tip than I would have if I'd used my UK or USA money. What the stewards lacked in convenience, they made up for in amount. My hope was that when they next visited those locations, they would be able to go out and buy themselves or their family a treat.

Can't get a martini at Cellar Masters so couldn't go there for my quiet drink

Would you be prepared to get a martini from another bar and then just sit in Cellar Masters for the quiet? That's the sort of thing I would do. When my cough was bad, I would pick up a Bailey's from any bar and take it in to dinner or the theatre or wherever.

Find the best space you can and then colonise it with everything you need from other areas of the ship.

The Celebrity Drinks Packages have their own peculiarities. I asked for sparkling water and was given a can of club soda instead. It turns out that sparkling water was only available on the Premium Package. How can sparkling water be of more value than a cocktail?

Addition: I was really glad of the drinks package the day I had a bad asthma attack and couldn't stop coughing. It turns out that Baileys on the rocks is wonderful. I chatted all day to people as long as I kept sipping the Baileys. The moment my glass ran dry, my cough returned. I got through 8 glasses that day! Not bad for someone who is only an occasional drinker!

Drinks would certainly seem to be expensive on Cunard if you are used to a free drinks package on Celebrity! It's my feeling that the offers of a free drinks package come so frequently that it would be difficult to book a cruise without one. Some people have said that you pay a higher price when the drinks packages are free. I don't know enough about Celebrity prices to know if this is true.

The Classic drinks package is $55 per day per person. When I booked my last 11-day cruise I was told that the cheap internet price did not include a package. However, if I paid around £300 more I would get a better room and a free drinks package, so I did that. It was an excellent deal.

I found quite a lot of live music on Celebrity Reflection. There was a house band with singer playing in the main atrium most evenings. Often while in Cafe al Bacio I heard a guitar-accompanied soloist or duo singing. There was a couple playing cello and violin in another venue one evening. It was music of a different type from what I hear in Cunard, so again it's a question of preferences.

Procruise, thank you for your lovely comments.

I think the Cunard dress code sounds daunting at first, but it isn't really. It's quite easy to adapt to it as long as men are prepared to wear a tie and a jacket. It's easy for women as we can be dressy enough in just black trousers and a sparkly top for formal evenings.

I have never felt a class difference on a Cunard ship. Once on board, you don't know who is 'Mixed Grills' and who is in 'rowing class' or 'steerage' (as some of us call ourselves on the Cunard forum). The only big difference between the classes is the different dining venues, and you get that on Celebrity and on many other ships. I actually felt that Celebrity's decision to not give out shower gel below concierge level creates more of a class division than anything on Cunard.

Most of the people I have met on Cunard ships are hard-working English people who save hard to cruise with a company that they consider to be quality. Lots of them also choose Cunard because they don't want to fly and many Cunard cruises go from Southampton. I think Cunard is a slightly older clientele than Celebrity. They party in a different way. The bars are not as full or as loud. However, the enjoyment level is just as great.

As for price, in general I have found Cunard to be cheaper than Celebrity. However, it may depend on knowing just when the special offers are around. I think most of us pay too much for our first cruise with a new line.

LadyL1, thank you. You have reminded me of a couple of things that I meant to add in.

I too found the music on CR to be too loud. I like to talk in the evening. It was very difficult with such loud music playing right into the bar.

I appreciated the lack of announcements in staterooms. On QV I was always woken up by the announcement that we had docked; on CR that announcement was only in public spaces.

I much prefer the QV Captain's announcements to the CR Captain's announcements. The latter seemed to go on too long and lacked dignity. It was too busy talking about the 'fabulous Reflection' and its 'wonderful officers' etc. and I did not feel an announcement was the place for such hype.

I did not know if the lack of wardrobe space was only because we were in an accessible room, but it sounds from your comment as though it is general. We managed but the wardrobe was packed. I was a bit horrified at the poor quality of the hangers provided - mainly metal ones from dry cleaners. Others looked as though they had been left behind by previous guests.