afto

This is a wonderful review; have enjoyed all your posts and learned lots from them too. Library train = amazing!!

Great report! Enjoying your photos very much. I especially like the one of the shadow of the Eclipse on shore.

OK, now everyone calm down. Topper has received rave reviews, therefore it is so.:rolleyes:

 

Lol.

Nice! I wonder how long this will be in effect.

Liar's club on Equinox last year with CD Alejandro and Captain Leo gave us the most laughs we have ever had at a Celebrity event -- and I say that even though two of the three words were repeats for us.

I agree with Ine. I found leaving Amsterdam to be quite an interesting departure. We were docked near the city center, not far from the Central Train Station. At departure, I spent a couple hours on the deck going from side to side watching the scenery pass by. You will be in a pretty narrow channel much of the way, so it is easy to see both sides. Lots to look at. And as you pass through the locks that hold out the North Sea waters, it is very interesting if you have any interest in the engineering of Mother Nature being tamed.

 

If you're interested in a photo preview, here is a link to my photo album for the day which includes arriving at the ship (Celebrity Constellation), photos on board, and photos of the shoreline as we departed.

 

https://flic.kr/s/aHskmHQ3Jy

Thanks for posting the link to the photos. These are really helpful.

Easy decision ... tres leches cake for the win!

We are currently looking to book for 2017. We are considering the Celebrity package, 20 night ultimate Alaska and Canada cruise tour. Everything looks perfect except we have a similar offer (very little difference in price) from our TA which has a better Canadian tour which is on the Rocky Mountaineer, Gold Leaf, giving us an extra day on the train in daylight as opposed to Celebrity's offering with Via Rail, of an overnight in a sleeper car, missing out much of the Kamloops to Jasper journey. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has done the Canadian tour with Celebrity on Via rail or the alternative Rocky Mountaineer. Given the cost of the Rocky Mountaineer the TA's offer for a slight increase in cost looks the better deal. What is making me hesitate is that we are travelling from Edinburgh and are booking this blind as the flights are not available until September. I have a feeling that Celebrity will be able to put a more cohesive flight package together for us. I would appreciate your feedback because we are unlikely to do this trip again.

You should still be able to book your flights with Choice Air (through Celebrity), even though your land arrangements are not made through them. You can check this about 11 months in advance.

Thanks for your review. I am sorry that you were disappointed with Astoria. I thought that there was plenty to do, even on a rainy day, such as the historic Flavel house and the modern and interesting Columbia River Maritime Museum. The views from the Astoria column are breathtaking. The people in Astoria go out of their way to be friendly; there were volunteers at the port and a local arts/crafts market alongside the ship when we were there. It's not a long walk into town, but there is a trolley and a shuttle bus to get up to the column on top of the hill. It's an easy and inexpensive DIY port and I enjoyed it quite a bit, so I am just putting in my two cents worth in Astoria's defence. :)

Really well done; I especially enjoyed the historical information about each site. Thanks for posting.

Don't forget "modern" and "luxury"!

OP thanks so much for posting. We will be doing something similar next year in some of the ports you are visiting, particularly Warnemunde, and very much looking forward to it.

Travelanni ... the ticket that you are talking about is the one that can be bought from a machine at the stop where you catch the #119 bus, right?

Thanks again.

Love this!

Very interesting, but it doesn't answer the question. Try to cut and paste something else that is relevant

Thank you. I have felt like saying this so many times ... often, the "official" Celebrity poster might just as well say "here is some vaguely relevant information; for more details, please see our web site, where your question will not be answered either." Why bother posting this kind of thing?

Ssislandgirl, really enjoyed your photos. You have really got me thinking about adding a Norwegian fjords and North Cape cruise to the bucket list. Thanks for posting.

We have booked "hump" cabins with the slanted balconies several times and enjoyed the extra space. One thing that was a bit of a concern for me on our last cruise was that we booked the cabin on the "inside" of the hump, next to the cabins without the slant (it's difficult to explain what I mean but it would be something like cabin 7258 on the Equinox). The people in the next 2 cabins (so 7254 and 7256) were travelling together and had the partition down between their two balconies. This meant that when we were standing at the rail on our balcony it was hard to avoid having a full view of their balconies. I felt that I was invading their privacy just by leaning on the rail watching the waves go by, so I retreated to the interior of our balcony whenever they were present. I would not book this particular cabin and location again, but this was not a problem with other "hump" cabins on the slant. The extras space is really nice.

My husband & I used Anastasia Travel for two days of private tours in St. Petersburg, which we wrapped around the middle day of our ship's excursion to Moscow. It was a terrific way to see as much as possible in a short amount of time. I did a couple of blog posts last week on St. Petersburg that might be helpful and give you an idea of realistic itineraries for each day:

 

http://www.themodernpostcard.com/?p=727

http://www.themodernpostcard.com/?p=770

 

St. Petersburg is a fascinating city...Happy planning & traveling!

 

Mary

Travel Blog: http://www.themodernpostcard.com

Thanks for the link to your blog, Mary. Very interesting and lovely pictures. Will be following in your footsteps next summer.

Anne

I'm new to Celebrity and wonder if my magnetic clips will attach to the stateroom walls on Celebrity staterooms? I use them to attach various documents to the wall.

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

Welcome to Celebrity! Yes, the walls are metal so your magnetic clips will work just fine. I take some along and use them for the same purpose.

We are booked on a tour in Russia with Alla Tours. Their web site indicates that it's OK to bring snacks with you from the ship, and I don't think they would take the risk of telling people that if it was against the law.

We are overnighting in SPB & are booked for day tours.

 

We were considering going to a Folklore performance offered by our tour provider.

 

I am not sure, if we'll be tired from the day tours to venture out in the evening too.

 

Does anyone know if Celebrity invite local entertainers on board for evening performances. Recently, on our Hawaiian cruise, Princess had a lovely evening with Hula performances & singing by a local troupe.

I'm also interested in the answer to this question. I had read somewhere that they have brought local entertainers on board in the past, but we have 2 nights in St. Petersburg so I would be interested to know if anyone has any idea which night they might do that.

Thanks for the review and the great pictures. Reminds me that it has been too long since I have been on a M class ship. Love lounging in that solarium pool.

We always get sucked in on this one. We have fun with it each time [emoji1] even though we don't win much [emoji15]

Those quarter machines are a magnet for me, although I know it is a complete waste of money. But they did not have any on our last cruise on the Equinox in December 2015. Is it possible that they are removing them from all the ships?

Interesting...that is what I am looking for but doesn't seem to exist for this booking. I'm not sure why our travel agent wouldn't want us to see it, they are the ones arguing with us about it and if they had something like that to show us to shut us up I would imagine they would have done so already!

I wonder if at the time of booking your parents received some documentation that identified their $50 initial payment as a "reduced deposit" or "discounted deposit" or "promotional deposit" or some other wording that indicated that this payment did not fall into the same category as "deposit." That's just a thought; it would be a narrow opening through which Celebrity could wriggle its way out of refunding the rest of the $900. I agree with other posters that usual procedure would be to forfeit the "brochure deposit," but if they did not provide your parents with anything in writing to that effect, I don't see how they can expect your parents to know that. Good luck with this and please do let us know the outcome.

Thanks for posting those pics, scuba cruiser. Our tour is supposed to include a subway ride, so I hope that we don't have to miss that due to time constraints. Looks very cool and I am looking forward to it.

I purchased the Oslo Pass beforehand online and picked it up at the visitor center. There was no line to pick it up and it was extremely easy. I don't remember what time we arrived ( we were on the Eurodam) but having bought the pass ahead of time facilitated things and gave us a discount.

 

We really enjoyed the experience with the Oslo pass. We visited the Nobel Center, the City Hall, the Viking Museum, the Folk Museum, took the ferry and rode the tram to Vigeland Park.

 

We had a really nice day and did not feel rushed at all . I felt the Oslo Pass was very worthwhile.

Thanks very much for the info. I am glad to hear that the process works smoothly. Looking forward to our day in Oslo - we won't be there until 2017 but I like to plan ahead. We will probably do Vigeland Park, quick visit to the folk park, then the Viking ships and the Kon-Tiki Museum. Hoping for sunshine!