Waihekean

Not sure if the infinite pool is fo adults only. There have been many kids in there when viewed footage of the Preziosa on You Tube.

Hi, Terry

As per usual your well researched facts are mind boggling!

You have really captured a lot of the NZ spirit, landscape, tourist as well as the real stuff.

You have been so lucky with the weather. At the moment we are sweltering away with the humidity.

There is only one Hobbiton Movie set place.

Have been in 8252 and is a great balcony, as you can look forward if you stand at the left hand side of bacony, but ofcourse looking aft is easier. This cabin is in great location if you want to be close to the lifts and is very quiet.

The balcony itself is about triple size and incredibly spacious.

Also have been in 8254 where you can not look forward, but was still a great cabin and the balcony is about double size.

These cabins are also great when you have Istanbul in your itinerary, because you will have all the great views from your balcony.

There are a lot of us that are not moanen and groanen, but eagerly awaiting our next cruise, plus finding out as much info as we can.

Hence for some of us the countdown clocks, so we can see exactly how long to go:D:D:D

Hi Kat,

When I first enquired with my American TA about MSC she said that she was not allowed to book Australian residents. When informed I was a New Zealand resident, she checked with MSC and came back to say that they are allowed to book non Australian residents.

She did say that we probably can not do an online check-in and would have to do it at the pier. Have tried to register online, but no go so far. It will not recognise my booking number. Will have another go at it over the American site.

My Mum actually resides in Holland and we both have Dutch nationality. I am not too worried as the deposit went to MSC directly.

Re: the red line information from Skipper Tim in regards with Celebrity. Have cruised twice with them through an American TA booking and had no troubles at all. That time deposit went also directly to the cruise line.

Melissa,

Thank you so much for this thorough review! My husband and I are finding it very helpful as we plan our cruise for June. Did you find that it would have been better to be on a specific side of the boat when in ports (with balcony)?

Lori

I have done this itinerary twice, Equinox and Reflection and had a starboard cabin (r/hand side). Both cruises had same and marvellous views, especially Istanbul where view from balcony was of Topkapi Palace, Sophia Hagia and the Blue Mosquee.

Check out Celebrity. They usually have an itinerary where first port is Santorini and the Istanbul stop is an overnighter of one and half day.

If having a balcony cabin, then take a starboard cabin and you will have views to Topkapi Palaca, Sophia Hagia and the Blue Mosque.

Both these stops are also fantastic to have a sunset dinner with of course amazing views and your ship in the background.:)

Agreed, Mykonos is great to just wander around. Just get dropped off (by shuttle bus most often) in the little township. Walk to the windmills (Little Venice is there as well) and work your way back just discovering all the beautiful little streets full of quaint shops.

Make sure you have worked out how to get back to the ship, as you will not be able to get a taxi on the end of the day.

Hi, Terry Just a little tidbit.

If I walk out of my street (a quiet cul de sac, next to a vineyard) turn right, walk for 1/2 a minute and there is the Onetangi BP station:D

Then down the hill for 5 minutes and I'm on the beach for my morning walk.

It's wonderful that you managed to see Onetangi beach whilst here.

Have a great flight (hope you can sleep) and may the good weather hold in Hawai. Greetings from us Kiwi's.

Hi Terry,

I'm so happy that you managed to get most of the good weather. Apparently we will be getting some strong winds by Wednesday.

Hope you have an awesome time in Auckland and especially of course on our humble little island Waiheke:D

Well Victor, we can not recommend any travel agents as according to the rules of Cruise Critic. But they themselves advertise several cruise travel agents. You can go to the cruise reviews site. This is when you have opened Cruise Critic and is situated on left hand side top of page. Become a member of their newsletter and CC will send you regular updates by e-mail of the specials. You will also see little ads occurring of different TA's (travel agents). Tak note of the names and do this for a while as they usually show only a few at the time.

Then do some researching on the net of these TA's websites. Have they got a lot of cruise info? Like describing all the cruise lines and the ships themselves. Have they got good search engines? Do they have last minute specials? Have they got a free phone number for a lot of countries in the world? Compare a few TA's and see which one appeals to you and describe to their newsletters as well.

The other thing is to check which cruiseline will accept bookings through an American agent. For example just booked thru one on a MSC ship, but at first could not do that, as MSC does not accept bookings from Australians. However, as I'm travelling with my Mum who has a Dutch passport and I live in New Zealand, but also have a passport from the Netherlands (so got nothing to do with Australia) was allowed in the end.

Only restriction is that I cannot book excursions or check in via MSC website:confused: Each cruiseline has certain rules about which nationalities they will accept through an American TA. I.e: I can't go with Princess and HAL, but Celebrity does accept foreign bookings.

You should also check out your local and national TA's. What actually happened in your case your cruise had a "Price Drop".

It is up to you to find these price drops or certain promotions. Then you need to contact your TA and see if you are eligible for this change in price. Quite often it is for new bookings only, but as an alternative you might want to upgrade to a higher category.

NOTE: My deposits to the American TA, always go to the cruise line directly and not them. This way you know that the booking is secure. So check that out as well.

Also keep track for any alerts from other Cruise Criticers when a special comes up. This will be hard here on the MSC forum, but on the Celebrity forum it happens all the time.

But I would not feel too mad about that you booked at a higher price. It happened to all of us in the beginning.

If we were not on Cruise Critic, we would not even know that you could change the price after booking and before final payment.

The important thing is that when you book that you are happy with the price. I find what works best for me is to book an early saver price and then monitor for any price drops. This way I can book a cabin I want and it feels good when the price goes up instead of down.

This did not work for my next cruise, because decided all of a sudden to take a cruise. So for the first time booked an OV cabin and I'm hoping to see some last minute deals and then upgrade to a balcony.

All in all, the monitoring takes a lot of time, so you have to figure out what would work the best for you. But for me, since started cruising this is now a hobby:rolleyes: (or addiction):rolleyes:

I did an 8 night Celebrity cruise in May and then a 10 night Princess cruise in July. I had such a great time on both vessels, that I honestly can't remember which one I had more fun on! They were both great and there were more similarities than differences.

Princess: I LOVE the pools, hot tubs and MUTS and Princess excels here.

Staterooms are more attractive on Celebrity. Closet space is better on Princess. Beds are better on Celebrity

Musician in lounges- Princess

Entertainment I would give a slight edge to Princess. Loved the crew show on Princess! It was fabulous. Kudos to the entertainment staff.

Games and trivia- Princess was better for this but Celebrity isn't far behind. Library- Princess

Food- tough call here. I don't like the MDR on Celebrity-too big and noisy. More intimate MDR venues on Princess. Specialty restaurants are good on both.

Buffet- definitely Celebrity, hands down. More selection, better set up and free juice and punch.

Service- definitely Celebrity. The champagne and friendly faces upon boarding really sets the stage for sophisticated ambiance.

Overall coming away feeling like a valued customer- Celebrity

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This is so close to what my opinions would be.

First cruise was on Dawn Princess, so dear to our heart. Liked the MDR better on Princess due to the more intimate atmosphere and so far with Celebrity I have requested 3x to be seated a a table for 8, but every time ended up at a table for 2 in a stink spot. Find pools and bars are a lot better on Princess.

Celebrity has great cabins and bathrooms and really like the oversized balconies. Cabin attendants have just been marvellous, but where X really wins with me is that I can book via an American TA. Which means that the balcony fares are half the price from Princess:)

Thank you MSC. Will convert into euros.

Have been on the Equinox and it was great. Then on the Reflection and it was noticable that this is their flagship. Captain, officers and other crew very proud of it and everything just a bit better, especially the shows.

Yes, look at Venere or Booking dot com (very informative reviews) and stay somewhere around the historic centre. September is now an extremely crowded month in Rome, so if you see a good deal grab it and book early if you can.

The most comfortable and most economical way is to book a transfer via RomeCabs. They are used to bring and pick up cruisers for years and most of us have found them here because of Cruise Critic. Their reputation is impeccable and it is really easy to organise a van to share with some roll callers. You can also use them for airport pick ups.

My cruise is May 10 which is so close to the construction completion that I probably won't know until I get there

And here is guessing that this will be for almost everyone this summer.

But so far it seems okay for my July one. Fingers crossed.

For Pax that is researching this option, just be aware that they are not supposed to drop you in the township, but they are supposed to bring you back to the ship (something to do with the local law and taxies). However the drivers will try and drop you close enough to the township if asked, but it could be a bit of a hairy walk. In our case the van was full with passengers that had to go to the airport, so the driver had to hurry.

We left the resort at 2pm and had just enough time to explore the township a little and then followed the masses unto the Celebrity bus;).

It was a wonderful day.

Thank you, so I can contact Celebrity for the price drop. Not sure if they would do that here in NZ, but it is worth a try.

Just booked Hotel Gabrielli Sandwirth and it has reasonable rates considering the location. We have a twin room and it looks out over the back, but they do have rooms at the front with views over the lagoon. They also have a roof terrace and a garden. It a fairly close to the Doges Palace and San Marco.

Go up to the main page and look up the reviews. There are always pop ups there with Cruise Travel agencies. Become a member for their news letters (also the Cruise Critic one) and you will receive regular e-mails. Beside the American ones, do start trailing some national and local ones too and become a member of these as well.

Once you have a short list of which ship/line you would like to go to and which itinerary check out prices of that particular cruise line to see what the standard prices are so you can compare the specials.

Then it is a question for monitoring the specials and the different websites on a regular basis till you see something that is a good price or you might see an early saver prive.

On this forum is a regular thread that alerts us for bargains.

Or say on the Celebrity forum cruisers will alert for special promotions or Wow sales.

Once you see a price drop, just contact your TA and see if you are eligible or in case of new booking check if you can get the perks like OBC, early saver rate etc.

This question has not been answered as yet for OP. Did you got the price drop from Celebrity directly or via an TA?

I do know you can get price drops organised through your TA, but do not know if and how you can get it done if booked via the Celebrity site.

With the premium package you can have the "special" coffees that are listed on the last page of the Al Bacio menu like coffee with white chocolate etc.

You can of course also talk to the Barista about what you require and try a few drinks out. After all you are on the package and if you do not like the drink... just get another!:D

To OP. Just bring your own stuff, but put it in these smaller travel bottles to save luggage space. Maybe you can use Celebrities shampoo and conditioner only (found pretty good) and for your skin your own products.

Just curious...the whole area of these bars allows smoking on the port side, or just a section? Thanks.

No, only sections of it. At the Mast Bar it is right in front of the bar and at the railing looking down unto the pool deck. At Sunset bar it is on the right hand side and around the corner where the gras is (nice area to sit).

Easy to find these places as you will notice the ash trays provided.