Ladytainn

We are cruising on Voyager of the Seas in March. Has anyone been on board RCI over Easter? Travelling with two grandchildren and wondering if there are any special activities, chocolate etc.

Do I need to bring easter eggs?

:confused:

I have booked a Teklanika tour now with Princess, rescheduling is not an option with Australian travel agents. I am now booked for whale watching, dog sledding and Teklanika tour in Denali, I'm very happy with this. Thank you for all the advice.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Problem solved you were right Craftygrandma, looks like sold out also means "not ready yet" they are starting to show now. Thank you for all the suggestions.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We are booked on the May 6 Princess northbound cruise on the Star. We have the one night in Denali Lodge and one each at Mc Kinely and Anchorage.

Princess tours are showing every tour into the national park as sold out. Does anyone know if there are any other ways to see Denali and the wildlife other than a Princess tour?

It's a long way from Australia to NOT see the national park. We will be at Denali lodge on the 13 th May, McKinley lodge on the 14 th.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you for a fantastic review, I just booked a cruise on the Star to Alaska with the Denali land tour and found your review, so helpful and now I'm even more excited than I was.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We did our own thing , tenders land at the pier and the free buses were waiting there for us, they went to the treaty grounds and into town on a circuit. We walked, 10 mins to the back entrance of the treaty grounds, then toured there, war canoe, treaty grounds, very interesting forest displays. Then the free bus took us from the entrance into town, markets are usually on when a ship is in. Nice litttle town, lovely area. We got the bus back to the wharf to the tender and had a drink and snack at the sailing club right on the beach. Very friendly people and pretty views. This was our favourite day!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were on the Explorer in December to NZ

Wellington is easy, a bus will be at the dock, pre book if you want to, it will take you either to the tourist bureau or the entrance to the cable car. The tourist bureau can book you any local tours, we did the Weta Cave for 60 each, 12 people on the tour it returned to where the bus dropped us off so very easy to get back. If you haven't been there before the cable car is fun, buy ticket when you get off the bus, you can walk back down, great views if the weather is right.

 

Auckland, boat docks right in port, bit of a walk down the huge pier, which has shops etc then the hop on hop off bus stop is at the end of the pier, 40 each, the ferry terminal is just the next pier over on the left, the trip to Devenport takes 12 minutes, a very pretty place, there is a bus tour there at the end of the pier, 20 each, goes right around the island depending on their age the kids might like the park areas and tunnels on the high hills.

 

Tauranga you can book tours in small groups either before or when you arrive at the very well organised tent at the dock entrance, small group tours are 145 each, less for kids. If you google tours Tauranga you will get lots to choose from, Kiwi 360 and the giant trees are included on some. Entrance tickets to Rotorua including the cultural performance are about 50 per adult.

We were onboard, currently sitting in a closed Sydney airport hoping for a flight home.

The list occurred during a storm front, rain and winds strong enough to hit the balcony windows with force. We listed to starboard for about 3 minutes, we were on deck 8 so it felt like more than 10 degrees, rain came down sideways. The ship then righted and seemed to move quickly forward, not sure what that means.

The captain announced that we had listed at about 10 degrees for 2.5 minutes after being hit by a wnd squall of 147 knots, his statement not sure if he was wrong with the measurement or not, I do thnk it would take a fair wind gust to tip the ship though. He then performed a correction which is what I assume the forward thrust was.

Bars lost all of heir bottles from shelves, pool emptied, furniture moved, lower deck sea doors closed because of the water that came in. No one injured apparently but I wonder about the galley crew, I wouldn't want tobe near hot soup when that happened.

Does anyone know where the Explorer is likely to tender passengers to please? The NZ tourism site says the wharf is near the treaty grounds, which is what we would like to see, but I'm not sure how far this is?

We are thinking of going intoPahia on the shuttle, looking around and then going back to the treaty ground, is this doable? I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks for all the great info and menus, a really great review.

We were I the Greek Islands on the Equinox a couple of months ago. We did private tours in most ports, celebrity to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, Athens an excellent private tour in a mini bus with PK Tours, fantastic guide who was very knowledgeable especially in the Acropolis museum. A private tour in Santorini That also included the archeological site, which was amazing, Oia and a round island tour.

"Tours with locals"is a good company to start looking.

Thank you for a very interesting thread, looking forward to the rest. After one cruise on Equinox we are now looking at Solstice for Alaska next.

Thank you for your time, could you please advise if the new pricing will apply to cruises from Australia? Will Australians be able to access the new pricing for cruises to the U.S.

Congratulations on Celebrity's excellent customer service and staff training, we still think this is the best line.

We came back two weeks ago from a Celebrity med cruise. It was so good it's made me wonder if I've done the right thing doing a NZ cruise on Explorer. We went to the Greek Islands and Istanbul overnight on the Equinox, long stops even when tendering and the overnight evening tour and time to explore made a huge difference, I know some lines don't stop very long at some med ports, it's really worth checking if you want to see the destination properly. I loved Celebrity, it was a very comfortable ship, never seemed crowded and the staff were fabulous, I even liked the buffet arranged as stations. However I think the line depends on what you are looking for, or your own preferences and we have had great cruises on several lines.

We are just back from the 21 May cruise on Equinox, we tendered at Mykynos, took about 10 minutes, dropped us at the pier, right in town, celebrity set up their drinks, cold towels station at the start of The pier. It was a very easy fun tender.

Great photos, we are stopping over in Singapore too, looking forward to following your posts.

I have friends doing this trip so following with interest. Great photos.

The report was in The Age, Melbourne newspaper, quoted as being from the Telegraph (UK)

Been following this discussion with interest, I really like the idea of DD if the processes are in place to book it in a timely fashion. I cruise about half of my vacation time, when travelling I enjoy different types of foods and place to eat, sometimes I want to dress up and go formal others I just want to grab something to eat. What I don't like is having to eat at the same time in the same place every time, so when I cruise I always do MTD and try different venues when I can.

Ovation is coming to Australia soon and DD is one of the reasons I'm excited about that. ( besides not flying for hours )

We are on the Equinox at The end of May, I'll post about the Molecular Bar and any changes then.
I don't mind the charge for Bistro on 5, choice is a great thing, I'm looking forward to trying those lamb chops.
I always read with interest the posts about the paid venues on board, then make up my mind when we get there whether to use them, I do think that prices now are reasonable for cruises on the mid range lines, if that what it takes to keep them that way then I'm happy.

Thank you Andy for taking the time to answer my question and all the many others. I'm looking forward to trying Bistro on 5 and the new menu now!

Thanks for those photos, they are great.

I too was worried about the cable car, I am terrified of cable cars, DH has many tales of me sitting (or standing in a huge beast in Switzerland ) with my eyes so tightly shut that my face screws up into a shrunken head pose :o so I was glad to see the pics of the cable car, I think I can handle that one.

My husband would walk down from our cabin on Deck 6 every morning and get an Americano and a Cappachino to go for us to drink on our balcony. Heaven!!! Yep, all included with a package! And, in the style of ClaudiaB, he might also have brought back a nutella croissant for me, or it might have been two...:p

 

Oh, Nutella croissants, now that sound like a great idea!

Thanks for the review Andy. I'm. Interested in your comments about the Gastrobar, I'm new to Celebrity and I can't find a lot of info about this anywhere? Doesn't seem very well promoted.

Could any of you very experienced cruisers tell me about getting from one to the other? We will taxi to Hagia Sophia early, then would like to go through the GB down to. The Spice Market ( thanks to Rick Steves)

I can't seem to work out any easy way to get from Hagia Sophia down to the Bazaar though, looks like a more arduous walk than we would like.