petsgalore

Thank you all, we will allow enough time between docking and the start of our tour.

Hello, 

Anyone been to Palma on Celebrity recently and can tell me which pier was used?

Thanks!

Thanks cpgrneyes, that is quite a list. We’ll see if we find something!!

16 hours ago, JIMinNC said:

They gave us several alternatives with compensation in the form of on-board credit ($500 stateroom/$1000 suite) for rebooking on a group of selected cruises, credit of $250 stateroom/$500 suite for rebooking on a cruise other than those selected,

Hi, would it be possible to list the ones they offered? We are on board next week and maybe one of those offered are of interest to us. We have not been officially informed of the cancellation.....

The 10 October cruise is showing sold out on my TA’s website, we are also booked on it.

Vienna depends on where you dock. If you are in Nussdorf, yes it will be a bit more complicated and take about 30 minutes. If you are near Mexikoplatz/U1 Metrostop Vorgartenstraße a lot less (approx. 10 minute metro ride) and it is very straight forward to get to Stephansplatz.

We did a private strawberry tours food walking tour with cesar and he IS brilliant. I highly recommend the tour and if there is a way to ask for cesar, do it. 

Bimmer09, it was when i booked, but i only booked approx 3 months before the cruise. I heard that there had been an itinerary change at some point but i don’t know what it was.

look into the SPANKY PROJECT. It helps cubans with their pets. While health care is free for people, vet care or pet related items are incredibly expensive. A dog collar is half a month’s salary. I brought dog collars, cat treats and flea treatments and dropped them off at the project’s caretakers. I had no problem bringing this off the ship, besides spanky operates with the full support of the cuban authorities. 

I understand individual handouts, like pens, soap etc encourages begging, especially around the cruise port and this is something the authorities want to discourage. There are other projects visitors can contribute to, you will find more info on the web.

Hi, we are on the journey right now and visited santiago, cienfuego and havana, in that order. Changing money was super easy, santiago’s booth was right after passport control and there was also a booth across the street. It took no more than literally one minute, but i am sure it depends on the number of people in port. We did not exchange money in cienfuego, because i had enough cucs. In havana, there are several counters in the terminal after passport control and it also was very quick. 

We also had a mix of ship and private excursions. To be honest, this time around the shore excursion desk seemed a bit discombobulated, there were a whole bunch of miscommunications due to changes/cancellations of tours. Letters sent to the cabin had wrong meeting places/times, as did messages left by shore excursions on our cabin phone. A couple we met was not informed of change in departure time and missed their excursion. Be on your toes and you will be fine with your ship excursions, read the letters sent to your cabin and compare to the tickets that are attached. You will  know that it is a mistake when they tell you that dinner will be served in the windows cafe on deck  5 before you depart for your evening excursion.  This cruise there were lots of these “small” mistakes in information put out, from typos to mix-ups, maybe due to lack of QA, we never had experienced this before.    We still had a great cruise,  we went with the flow and it worked out just fine. Cuba is a wonderful place, i hope you will have fun

Currently on the journey. The internet is painfully slow, video clip attachments to whatsapp take a long time to load. Last night it did not work at all for some time, not just for me but for other guests as well. It seems to have its ups and downs, perhaps depending on how many guests are logged in. Generally, for text messages it is ok.

We used luggage transfer from Jet Service (customerservice@myjetservice.com) after our last cruise and it was super convenient.

An agent was waiting for us when we disembarked and he picked up our bags. We got them back at MIA airport when we were ready to check-in. So we were able to spend the entire day in Miami without worrying about our bags.

Car rental can be another option but parking in Miami and Miami Beach can be expensive so we prefer Uber/Lyft.

This sounds like a good option for us. How do you get your luggage at MIA? Do you go to some office there to pick up yor cases? Do you meet them at your airline check in area or some other designated meeting point?

What happens in my experience with the "double upgrades" is that during the "deal" the prices for the inside staterooms are increased to match the prices of the balconies staterooms (which do not change). So if you were looking to book, of course you go with the balcony for the price of an inside....

Just returned home from rome to venice cruise on quest. There was a more or less daily stretching class, multiple yoga and pilates classes, mostly in the morning. There were also several 30 minute spin classes, mostly around 3:30. The classes were all free of charge. The instructor is a very personable, fun young man. Of course I don’t know if he will still be on board in october.

My daughter and I are on the Il Redentore cruise in a couple of weeks with 2 nights in Venice at the end of the cruise. It now turns out we need to leave the cruise early, on the late afternoon of the day before debarkation to make a doctor’s appointment the next day. I came across a couple of posts here where I saw that we need to inform the cruise line before the cruise even begins. I was simply going to do it on embarkation day. I did not think it would be a big deal but on the threads I read some people reported that they were denied permission....Ordinarily I would write to Nicole who was always extremely helpful, but this is not an option now. Any advice? Both my daughter and I hold EU passports.

Had a private tour for 4 with TJ last week and could not be happier. I also asked for itineraries from SPB and Alla before settling on TJ. One did not reply for quite some time and the other did not really look at the itinerary we wanted and just suggested a “standard” one. Great guide and driver!

info for fitness buffs who don’t want to take too much time off from the gym ( I like to plan ahead and would have liked to have this info): there are yoga, pilates, zumba and spinning classes offered for a fee. The classes are 45 minutes long. You can purchase 5 classes for $55 plus service charge ( mix and match) and “receive $50 spa credit to be used on any service valued at a minimum of $120”. There are free classes every day as well, 30 minutes long, such as stretching, core, total body workout. I have taken the pilates classes (they are beginner level) and spinning ( excellent).

No shuttle available in stockholm. In the daily programme it said 10 to 15 minutes walk to the center. It certainly seemed quite a bit longer and i would characterize us as pretty fast walkers. It was quite a hike.

Yes they managed. Obviously i don’t know if some people were able to slip through, but as far as i know they checked tour tickets before they let you into the theater for priority departure.

It is definitely worth looking into private tours, we crossed paths with celebrity tour groups a few times in the two days we were there and there were at least 30 people in every group. Too many for my taste. Enjoy, SPB is an interesting place.

What i thought was really obnoxious were the annoncements with the status of the clearing process, i mean really, just come out and say we are debarking our tours first.

I think you will be happy with TJ. They did a good job and both driver and guide were excellent and very personable.

Visited SPB via celebrity silhouette on june 1and 2. Tours booked through celebrity had priority to disembark, everybody else had to wait in public areas. A pre-recorded tape was periodically played informing passengers that the ship had not been cleared by authorities, while anyone who bothered looking over the railing could see groups disembarking below. They were let go from the front of the ship via the theater while it appeared that the rest of us were kept at the back. When the announcement was finally made that the ship was cleared = those of us with private tours could leave too, a large group from michael’s club was hustled to the elevator by the concierge who basically blocked anyone else from getting on as well, taking them to deck 2 to get off.

We had a private tour for 4 of us booked with TJ travel, meeting time 8:30. We hung around the public area starting at 7. There was a looong line snaking from deck 5 to where i am not sure. Celebrity folks were stationed at staircases to keep people from cutting in line. The ship was “cleared” for us shortly before 8 and the line started moving surprisingly fast and orderly. We exited the ship and there were many lines open to go through immigration = several buildings with approx 6 to 8 booths each. Celebrity people were directing pax to various lines. We had 6 people in line ahead of us and it took about 15 to 20 minutes to get through. There were no other people waiting behind us in the line = pax were distributed well across to available agents. We met our tour guide at 8:35. It was much faster than anticipated, the real wait was on the ship for the ship tour people to get off.

When we returned to the ship in the evening, there was no line, same on the second day leaving and returning. We went through in a couple of minutes.

Sugar333, that sounds wonderful. I bet you have wonderful memories. We are very much looking forward to this trip but have to be patient since it is not until February 2019. In the other “ports”, could you choose between different excursions? I saw that on some of the other cruise lines, visits to schools are planned and people bring school supplies.. also on the scenic?

Hello Sugar333. We are also looking at this cruise with Scenic. Can you provide more information about the "excellent" excursions? It would help with out decision.

Thank you for posting this review. We have just booked a cruise from Siem Reap to Saigon in February 2019. I would also be curious about the excursions. From the write-up of the program it sounds like there are a couple of different excursions at practically every stop.

I was in email contact with him in July for dining arrangements on the Reflection. He was very helpful and replied right away.

I love, love, love your review. We will be doing a similar cruise next year and it is so helpful to read about other cruisers' experience. That's one reason, but the other reason is that YOU WRITE SO WELL ( and of course there are the photos!!!). Thank you for taking the time to post, much appreciated.