lovestx

Thanks, all. Sounds like we should just pick the cabin and location we like.

Friends and we have decided to book a Celebrity Solstice sailing on March 29, 2019 from Auckland to Sydney. We have been waiting for a Celebrity cruise that would include Hobart, Tasmania (a bucket list item for our friends who have travelled extensively). We will be booking an Aqua Class cabin.

For those who have cruised this route before, is there a particular side of the ship that is preferable (port or starboard)? Other considerations before we book?

Thanks. With so much lead time on this, we might as well get the best possible cabin.

And, yes, I have checked out the S Class Cabin spreadsheet :)

oh I definitely want to do this.

 

I looked on their website. It says the meeting point would be at the Mitropoli orthodox church. Do you recall how far away that is from where the cruise ships docks? Walking distance?

 

Thanks :D

Cruiseboy,

When the ship docks at Souda (some go to Heraklion), there is a free shuttle bus from the port to the center of Chania which takes about 20 minutes. We had a hard time finding the meeting point so be sure you print out a map before you go.

If you want true island flavor (as opposed to a more Disney-like tour), I would suggest you go to Cruzan. For a small fee of about $8 per person, you get a tour of the distillery and a tasting at the end with two drinks. Yum!

Still can't give you Jolly Roger advice but think I can shed some light on the lunch option.

In most cases, when the boat charters offer a full day sail to Buck Island, it includes a lunch on a beach back on the main island of St. Croix. This basically means that the difference between a half day sail and a full day sail is the time it takes to sail to a beach on the East End of St. Croix and lunch (and probably swimming) at that location.

Another charter to look into: Charis. Have never sailed with them but we watched them take people out to Buck from our villa rental last year and they always stopped at a nearby reef to snorkel (and probably eat).

Thanks, Enric, for the enlightening and interesting posts. We are on Carrer de la Reina Amalia so between sant Antoni and Para Lel. And I'm glad you think we've been ripped off as I think we have been. I will be much more careful in the future.

With that said, we do enjoy the liveliness of the area and have had a couple of fabulous meals at Cera 23 and a good one at Arume last night. We sat at the window table last night and got a kick out of the wide variety of ethnic groups and ages and shapes of the locals and tourists who paraded outside our window. It is clear that there is a large immigrant population in the area but all seem to be trying to make a go of it in Barcelona.

And your comments about the eviction process, landlords, etc. are very interesting. On our tapas tour last week, our guide talked about the challenge of finding places to live and the impact that Airbnb apartments have on that. We happened to be on the tour with a couple from Vancouver, and they noted how difficult their housing situation is now that so many foreign investors have snatched up properties to move money out of their own countries but then leave the apartments and houses empty. All very interesting to me.

We now say goodbye to Barcelona today....thanks for all of your helpful advice on the TA forum and this one.

Enric, we are in El Raval.

And, rustybuttons, you give good advice. I am usually a detailed planner but when our plans changed at the last minute (a niece decided to join us so we needed a bigger place), I jumped too soon. And it's costing us about $375 a night. Think that's considered reasonable for three beds and baths but should have paid more.

There's a post in TA right now asking about particular rentals and I can see on some some red flags like no windows, curtains instead of doors, etc. lesson learned.

We are in Barcelona now and have rented an Airbnb. It's not awful but I wouldn't rent it again. We booked last minute and I should have done more homework and asked more questions. So just be sure you check things out.

Things I wished I had known more about:

The neighborhood - BCN is a big city and somewhat gritty in parts with LOTS of graffiti. We were quite taken aback to learn that our apartment was ground level and that we had a roll down steel door as part of our entry.

Very little light in apartment which I should have assessed from pictures

Details like musty smell, a/c that doesn't work, no door on bathroom, etc.

And remember that you often cannot check in until later in the day.

Did you see this thread about Snorkeling Spots on the TA St. Croix forum? Might be helpful.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g147401-i716-k5910138-St_Croix_Snorkeling_Spots-St_Croix_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html

I did the Gecko ATV/jetski combo in 2012 with two other families with late teenaged kids and we and they loved it. As Drake said, the owners are very easy to deal with. But don't expect to see a lot of the island. You will visit the beautiful rainforest and get high on a West End ridge to see gorgeous views of the North Shore of the island.

TBH, I found the jetski portion of our time a bit boring as back then you couldn't go very far with the jetskis. So it seemed we were going back and forth in front of Rainbow Beach. The kids loved it because they just sped around but I would have liked to have seen more. But having been to Rainbow Beach many times since then, I think they may now have more latitude about where they can go.

Irish13,

I don't want to hijack this thread so feel free to go over to Tripadvisor and look for the St. Croix forum. You can use their PM function to message me. My screen name on Tripadvisor is ccrosner

We love sailing with Captain Heinz on the Teroro out of Green Cay Marina. A bit smaller than Big Beards (though he too is very popular for a reason), the do as much sailing vs. motoring as they can, they go to the reef for snorkeling first and then the beach. The only challenge is that Green Cay is 10 minutes farther from the port so the cab transfer would be a bit more money.

Just another one to consider.

MarkMom.

Smart you for booking time on St. Croix! I just wanted to mention that the Tripadvisor Forum for St. Croix is pretty active with some helpful posters. So be sure to check it out before you visit the island. I'm one of the Destination Experts (though I don't purport to be that great!) and we all love to help land visitors to the island just as Drake does such a good job for the cruisers.

Lovestx/ccrosner

Ashley, where are you? Hope everything is ok??!!

I'm friends with Ashley on Facebook and can tell you that she appears happy and fine. Hope she will come back and post.

Please tell me more, thinking of renting a car. Did you book ahead? If so any deposit or pre-paid? How was traffic and driving? How was parking? We leave Friday and this is the one island I didn't book anything yet.

 

Thank for any help.

I'm not this poster but thought I could answer your questions.

We spent a day on GC off the Equinox in November and rented a car through Cayman Auto Rental. Reserved in advance using their website. Don't believe the charges went through until we returned the car. Total cost for the day was $80 plus about $9 in gas. Traffic and driving were not difficult though they do drive on the left. I found a driving tour on Tripadvisor, printed it out, and used it as a guide for our day. We, too, spent a chunk of time including lunch at Rum Point. Really enjoyed our day.

Cayman Auto Rental is about a three block walk from the tender port.

Thanks Darkwolfe for the great review. I know it's a ton of work so many thanks.

Like you, our cruise was made all the better sharing it with friends.

I would love to hear your comparisons to Royal as we have never done that. Are the demographics that much different? Entertainment? Chair hogging? Did you feel more pampered or welcomed on Equinox?

That type of thing

Jade,

We used Lion World Travel and were very pleased. But I don't want to hijack Terry's thread so please email me at ccrosner at aol dot com if you have other questions. I am happy to help!

Still loving this review Darkwolfe. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

As one who was on board Equinox while all of you were delayed, we were dealing bad for you. Kept checking with the Blu maitre d' who kept saying "322 people still not on board".

But I still have to disagree with you on a Panama visit. We really enjoyed our tour to the Gatun Locks and the new locks under construction. Colon is as unsightly and gear-inducing as you say but the locks were interesting. And I talked to folks who took an excursion to Panama City and enjoyed it.

keep it coming!!!

Hi Terry,

I enjoyed your Australia/NZ review when you wrote it and we are considering it for a future trip. Would love to read your Croatia review...how do I find it?

My hubby and I were in South Africa, Victoria Falls and Botswana in October. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. It was awesome!

ccrosner at aol

Cartagena is a wonderful city. It gets better with each passing year.

 

I would either arrange a tour ahead of time or when you walk through the store that was mentioned to get outside then don't stop for the people who say they are tour guides. I would walk further and you can negotiate for a taxi to take you around

 

There is a lot to see. I would walk the walled city area and the colonial city. There is also the fort.

 

Keith

Keith,

May I just say that I thought of you and Annemarie several times while on my recent cruise even though we have never met! I followed your World Cruise 2015 and so enjoyed your blog. We recently visited Cape Town which made me think of you and then on our cruise I kept thinking "Could I be on this ship for three months? And Keith would be working out more!"

How you can remember (correctly!) the detail about the Cartagena port is beyond me with all of the ports that you have visited. Like you, we really enjoyed the walled city most and next time would just take a taxi and wander that area.

We were on GC on November 12, 2015 and there were five ships in port. We decided we really wanted to get a sense for the island so rented a car from Cayman Auto Rental and spent a half day touring the island. We saw very few crowds once we got out of Georgetown. We ended up having a fun lunch at Rum Point that was starting to get busy at lunchtime but was still quite nice. Just another thought. It cost about $90 for the car including gas. Tripadvisor has a great driving tour under "Top Questions" that we used as a guide.

Glad you found my notes interesting.

I don't have a picture of the lounge chairs on between Decks 14 and 15; however, they are the same as the ones you took a picture of on the Promenade deck with the orange/red striped covers. Very comfortable!

The Whiskey House is in the space which at one time had a small shop for selling Celebrity items (2012). Prior to the construction, the windows were covered up but they were showing Michael Kors handbags. It would be similar to where The Porch is on Silhouette. Hope you can picture that.

As always, I enjoyed reading your review and seeing your terrific photos. I found this review particularly interesting as we boarded the Equinox when disembarked. And there were some notable difference between the two cruises. Here are some:

We had Captain Panos (whom we got a kick out of)

Future Cruise office looked quite new; didn't realize just how new it was!! Quasar remained though I'm guessing it was smaller than before. I think the old Future cruise space was now hosting the Destination Experts

That landing area between Decks 14 and 15 aft that has two bistro tables in your photos (and is how I remember it from previous S Class cruises) now has four "Titanic" type chiars with cushions on them. Definitely popular during Sailaways!

We only had the Cirque de Soleil show. No other Equinox production shows which was a disappointment. I guessed it was because they must have picked up some new dancers and singers once back in the U.S. The production crew did do two Atrium performances towards the end of our cruise which was fun.

On our last day, they opened up Whiskey House on Deck 15. Looked like they were going to offer tastings (all part of the Walker company) but mainly there to sell bottles of whiskey

Ship entertainers were the same.

Thought you might be interested....

My guess is that you docked in the "scenic" port of Colon and looked out on the port.............we had a similar reaction several years ago and stayed on the ship

Yes, we did dock in Colon and within blocks of the port is a very depressing and rundown city. You would not want to wander there aimlessly. There appeared to be a few modern shops adjacent to the pier but we did not bother to go shopping there.

I do think it is worth it to see the old and new canals. We found it fascinating. I noticed on your Roll Call that quite a few people have made arrangements to go with Roberto's company. He is very professional and personable. Our CC group had him as a tour guide; however, my husband, two friends and I went on our own more private Roberto tour with a guide named Manuel. He had a thick accent that made understanding him challenging but we still very much were glad we had seen the locks.

Sailing on Equinox 11/30.

 

Last December we loved most everything about the ship except for the entertainment and sailaway festivities. I know there are different strokes for different folks, but DH and I felt most of the shows were really "hokey", especially the Beatles show. We actually walked out which we never did in the past.

 

Sailaway was extremely low key with perhaps just 2 couples dancing on deck last year. Hoping this year is better.

 

Thanks for any info.

Barbara

I thought the entertainment on the 11/9 sailing was a bit odd but have a theory on that. Basically, every night except for the first Sea Day/formal night was an 'outside' entertainer. We had several good soloists, a comedian, a ventriloquist and a Beatles show. The only EQ show was the Cirque de Soleil night. Towards the end of the cruise, the EQ dancers and singers performed at 10:30 p.m. in the Atrium area for two nights. Both of those were good.

My theory is that there was a turnover or partial turnover of the singers and dancers after the TA and that they were still rehearsing their acts. If that theory holds, you should have more Broadway like shows. I was disappointed that we did not.

The other entertainment on board was pretty good but not fabulous. Added to the ambiance but we didn't seek them out to watch.

Sailaway was fun for us as our CC group got together on the Sunset Deck.

Have fun!