nmg85

Celebrity ships have the main dining room and buffet restaurants included. Plus a grill where they offer burgers and hotdogs etc. Room service is also included apart from late at night when there is a small charge. We are in our late 20's and prefer celebrity

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We sailed last year at the end of May and the weather was lovely for all but 2 of the days. Take layers so you have options but be prepared for warm weather also

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If you like being active, then Colchester would be perfect. You are right about a concern in getting back to the ship on time though; I think we left Harwich sometime around 10am and didn't get back to Harwich until 4:30pm. You would probably want to get an early start if you are going to do this and skip seeing the Roman Circus which is basically fenced off and under tarps; for most people, it would not be worth the extra time (around an hour for walking roundtrip + short visit) and mileage expended (2-3 miles roundtrip?).

 

Switching trains at the first Harwich stop to take us into Harwich town (2nd stop) was easy and quick. We went up to the platform and the train was waiting. A couple minutes later it departed. Knowing the area better than I do, nmg85 can give better advice regarding switching trains at Manningtree versus at the 1st Harwich stop to Harwich town. Also, nmg85 might be able to advise if you would have enough time for this trip, and/or you could post on the Cruise Critic thread I mentioned earlier and the couple local people can advise you about time to do this.

 

 

 

We plan to go to Colchester again the next time we sail from Harwich so we can tour the Castle, which we missed because of being closed for renovations. For future reference, does the Manningtree train go right into Harwich town? Would we have been better to switch trains at Manningtree than to go to the 1st Harwich stop and switch trains to Harwich town?

 

Kathy

The train from Colchester usually requires you to change at Manningtree. Usually all trains will go from manningtree to various stops inc wrabness and mistley before reaching Harwich international (where the ship is docked) then dovercourt (this stop is in the centre of a small 'town' with a 5 - 10 min up hill walk to the beach.) The next stop is harwich town where the pictures earlier in the post were taken. I have only sailed out of harwich once but my grandparents etc lived in dovercourt so I spent a lot of time in the area growing up.

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Switching trains is easy at manningtree as a very small station. You could also get a taxi if you preferred. Harwich itself also had history with the mayflower.

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You could get the train (4mins) to dovercourt or harwich and easily explore on your own. Or you could get a train to Colchester which is the oldest town in England (20 min). Train station is in the cruise terminal.

It would depend on where you are sailing to... But anywhere at anytime can be unpredictable. You don't need a minimum amount in your account you pay for what you spend after the cruise is complete.

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In most places the cruise company list it where they have space or when it a famous fjord etc. Often HAL mentions when RCCL doesn't but they are still sailing down the same fjords if going to the same place. E.g geiranger

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Does anyone know anything about this aft cabin? This is one of only two remaining aft cabins on the sailing I am looking at and I was wondering why? I know it has the beam but it seems to be to one side. I have heard about issues from vents? And noise? Could this be why it is available?

Thanks

Thanks everyone, just nee to decide if the additional cost is worth it!

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Good Afternoon,

We have cruised many times but we are looking to possibly try Princess in June next year. We have found a nice itinerary on the Ruby Princess and are looking to book a mini suite. I have been doing some research and have noticed that certain decks on the ship have balconies that are overlooked from those above. Can anyone tell me which decks don't have this? Is mini suite worth the upgrade in other peoples opinion?

Thanks

I am from the UK and have previously only sailed X out of the UK. Mix of passengers about 50% European the rest from us or Canada. On every ship you get groups that annoy or are rude. My last cruise it was a group from Spain who didn't think they needed to queue like the rest of us mortal beings. However some of the British guests shocked me with their rudeness towards staff and other guests.

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Here is the pic -

We are in our 20's one of us with asthma and we made it going down easily within 30mins if not less. It depends on how many stops you need to do to let donkeys go past and how many times you stop for pictures :-) The Picture shows how steep and how big the steps are

Hi, When we were on the Solstice in Oct 2011 I believe all the people doing ship tours were taken off first and perhaps taken to another dock than those that were doing something independently. When we were there we had 4 ships in and all were quite large ones. A large majority of people seemed to be doing there own thing and the port had put on large local sailing boats with a higher capacity than the usual tenders. This was fine and we got straight on and waited 5minutes max before leaving, the main issue was the MASSIVE queue for the cable car. It was 27C degrees in Oct on that day and with no shade we made the decision not to wait for the hour+ to even get tickets for the cable car and to walk! Be warned this was not a pleasant experience and I would be apprehensive to do it again. The donkeys that rush up and down the fairly narrow pathway are dangerous and we saw numerous people get hit by them and my partner actually ended up standing infront of a couple in their 70's to protect them from donkeys flying round one of blind bends. The views were amazing and the way down was okay as wasn't so crowded but I would definitely put thought into this option. I know that the MSC ship that was meant to depart at 1pm delayed their departure as so many of there passengers were stuck at the top in the cable car queue. We worked out was another 1 and half wait which is why we had to walk down :-) Hope this helps.