staygulf

Jo & Rob, have a fantastic 10th anniversary in Lisbon.

Jo, it would be pretty neat if you could call a pre-departure rollcall gathering and everyone could raise a glass and give a shout out to your avid followers. :) BTW I'm not wishing away your cruise :(, continue having a great time.

In the light of your various posts regarding the Rome excursions on other threads earlier in the year, it is so nice to see that you had an enjoyable family day in Rome and that you got to see the Colliseum.

As regards the Aix excursion you will probably get a response from Miami along the lines of "Celebrity acts as agent for the tour company and as the tour went ahead as planned there is nothing Celebrity can do ". This is what happened to us in Haifa, Israel where over half of the travellers on our tour were not happy. Quite insulting, really, when you book the tour with Celebrity and do not contract with the tour company. Basically Celebrity are just adding on a commission to the tour company's price and don't accept any responsibility. Which is why I will continue to sail Celebrity but won't book any more of their (sorry, their tour companies) tours.

P&O v Celebrity.

 

We shared a table with a T.A from USA on Galaxy (Transatlantic in 2005)

 

She maintained that Celebrity charged 4* prices, but that the food was 5*+

 

IMO P&O charge more initially, but then drinks are nearer to pub prices in UK.

 

Celebrity have hiked their bar prices ( I think for the Solstice Class ships) We were apalled at the prices charged for a bottle of wine (in Oct 2010 cheapest was $35, which soon ran out ,so next cheapest was $75) We did not drink alcohol on board, as a protest.

 

Jo,

I will look into the non-alcoholic premium package on Century ( we are on the Hawaii to Ensenda next March)

However I do love Celebrity, despite this.

I agree that the drinks prices on X are very high. I am not a big wine drinker so was only drinking wine by the glass which was around $9 which I suppose equates to around $45 per bottle.

I dont agree that the food in the MDR is 5*+. More like 3 or 4* at best. All that mashed potato and pasta with everything is not my idea of a 5* culinery delight. Nevertheless, for the price the food is acceptable, just not as good or as well presented as on P&O which is silver service.

Just waiting for the answer to the question that is on everyone's lips......Is Celebrity better than P&O?

Interested to hear what Jo & Rob say, but imo I prefer X although they are both good. X ships are more stylish and they seem to be more competitively priced for the cruising. P&O cater better for the English market, they have silver service not plated food, their shows are way better and there is more interactive passenger activity if that is what you want. Also their drinks are a lot cheaper. I think the cabins onboard the Solstice class ships are better than P&O's and the buffet area is much better. X's demographic tends to be older, although I'm sure school holidays in th Med will see a fair proportion of kids. As I said, there's good in both, but my view is that X has the edge.

Having done what seems like the same itinerary in May I feel as though I have just returned for a second visit. OK Rob, so you're not sponsored by Celebrity, but I'm guessing you must be in the cinematic videographic field of work, right ? How else can you be producing such mind blowingly beautiful and well crafted videos, and uploading them from your cabin no less !

What stills camera do you use ? I want one. Your photos make mine look like they are taken with one of those free kodak give away cameras you get at wedding receptions.

Fantastic report Jo, are your videos sponsored by Celebrity ? ;)

Staygulf's tip. Don't let the crew hear that you leave the sliding balcony door open. It screws up the thermo balance of the ship and you are likely to be made to walk the plank ! This was drummed into us at one of the interesting Celebrity life talks given by the environmental officer. :eek:

On the Equinox in October we had Dru as the CD and he was assisted by the lovely Esperanza. How delighted I was to see Esperanza as part of the CD crew on the Eclipse in May. Is she still there ? The CD we had in May was Que, from South Africa. He didn't float my boat, just wasn't up to the job. The only time there was any life in him was when we had the man overboard incident on the last night coming back to Southampton.

Staygulf's tip. Make sure you go to Liars Club, hosted by Dru. Its an adult version of call my bluff and is very funny.

Way to go, Rob ! What do those Australians know about croquet, eh ?

I was on the Eclipse in May for a Med cruise. I took a couple of books with me but didn't have time to read either of them as there was just too much to do. The onboard lecture series was great and I think I went to every single lecture. I can't imagine how you find the time to make these posts but I'm sure glad you are doing so as it's bringing back wonderful memories. Keep up the great work !

Ok, now you got my attention so I pulled up the Google Earth picture and used their measuring device (accurate to a few feet) to measure. Just from the tender pier up to the corner of the marina (Quai St Pierre and the Croissette) is 3/10 of a mile. Using what we always thought was the most direct route (using Rue d'Antibes it comes out to a fraction more than 8/10 or about 1.4 kilometers which makes you closer then moi! So I do bow down to your calculation :) As I was doing this DW asked what I was doing and I told her I was measuring the distance. She laughed and said "its a mile" because nobody walks that exact route.... She said most folks (especially on their first visit) would walk along the Croissette (since everyone wants to walk on this street) so I measured this route and its almost exactly 1 mile. She told me she hates that short route (I never knew!) since walking up the Rue d'Antibes early in the morning is depressing because everything is closed (am sure she is referring to the shops). And I do agree with you that it can be walked in 15 min by a fast walker....but we are used to being on HA where many would need longer :)

 

Hank

You're lucky the shops are closed early in the morning otherwise you would never get anything else done ! I live just up the coast for much of the year and spend a great deal of time in Cannes. For the most part it consists of me sitting in a cafe on the Croisette for 3 hours whilst DW struts up and down rue d'Antibes and then we meet up and I have to go back to several of the shops she visited to give approval to the dresses she wants to buy. Why oh why she just can't buy them I'll never know.

Ok, we are going to disagree with Lew (rare we ever do this) since we kinow the walking route well enough to darn near do it blindfolded. From the tender pier, which is located adjacent to the old port next to a parking lot, it is about 1 mile (not kilometer) to the station (unless you can fly over the streets and buildings). It is a fun walk because you can actually walk through the best parts of the city and see a lot of Cannes. But, it does take nearly a half hour for most folks to make the walk. Taxis are not plentiful at the tender area and most would probably not want to take such a short fare to the train station. Once you get away from the tender pier and into town a taxi would do the short haul, but early in the morning most of the taxi drivers are parked and having their cafe au lait!

 

Not sure of the current train fares, but they are probably about 6-7 Euros one-way. The trains are basic commuter trains (you can even bring your bike) and there are no reservations. The buses are cheaper but it takes forever taking a bus between Cannes and Nice (even the train takes over 30 min). We prefer buses over the trains for shorter hops (like Antibe to Nice) but the train makes the most sense if going all the way to Nice or Monte Carlo from Cannes. Even the express buses from Cannes to Nice take an hour each way...and the local buses can take nearly twice that time in traffic.

 

Hank

If you are walking the route blindfold you are obviously going the wrong way. It is only about 1.1 kilometers from the tender point to the station, and it takes about 15 minutes to walk.

Don't have your TV on late at night so that it disturbs your neighbours who might be sleeping or trying to get to sleep.:(

Off topic (in a way)...we're in #6144 in "suiteland" next Feb. You mentioned 'talking to the butler in the hall'. I wondered if there were any residual benefits being so close to the hoi paloi. Guess the butler doesn't assist the CC class cabin right in the middle of the suites. Will we have another steward from 'way down the hall'??? :confused:

What do you mean by "hoi paloi" ? Surely you mean the exact opposite ?

No Muushka, it's no joke. What kudos is there in dining at the captain's table / Just to tell your friends "we dined with the captain". As most posts indicate, it's not usually the captain anyway, but a senior officer.

You pay all that money for a cruise, why on earth would you want to dine with the crew ? We once had an officer at our dinner table practically every night for 14 nights on a P&O cruise and it certainly stifled conversation on the nights he was there. Never again. If I received an invitation to dine at the captain's table I would decline the offer.