MarLieb

On 11/13/2022 at 9:48 PM, John Bull said:

 

Disembarkation is normally finished by 9.30, mebbe 10.00

 

International Friends is a long-established, respected and reliable coach (bus) tour operator.

For some years they've been offering a choice of three coach tour-transfers specifically for passengers on most cruises ending in Southampton. They're recommended by Cruise Critic members who've used them.

All three stop off at Heathrow around 5.30pm (ideally you'd want to be at Heathrow by 6 - 6.30) before continuing into central London for those spending post-cruise time in London.

Your luggage is loaded at the cruise terminal & unloaded at the airport. 

They're the first three tour-transfers on the Southampton page of

https://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/shore-excursions-and-cruise-transfers.html

 

Most-popular is Salisbury/Stonehenge/Windsor. Do buy your Stonehenge tickets with your tour tickets. To avoid over-crowding, numbers at Stonehenge are limited so don't rely on buying at the gate and those who buy in advance from the Stonehenge website have to select an arrival time in a half-hour window - ticket issued by coach operators (and the Salisbury/Stonehenge ho-ho buses) are for admission anytime. You might also want to buy tickets for Windsor Castle with your tour tickets to avoid a line, or you might just want to explore the town.

 

(On the same page they also offer private car tours & transfers, but a Southampton-based operator is probably better value for a simple airport transfer)

 

JB 🙂

 

This is wonderful info!

I just reached out to International Friends to see if I could arrange a private transfer from Southampton to Heathrow with a stop at Stonehenge.  Do you know of any other companies that offer this kind of service?  I found two others online - one of which had terrible reviews - I would just love to have another option or two if International Friends can't accommodate.

If you were to choose two of the following cabins (need to be adjacent), what would be your preference (or is there little difference?).  Hoping to have connecting verandahs:

9209

9213

9215

9177

9179

9181

9183

When my son was 11, we booked a RS (2 adults) connecting to a Verandah stateroom, which was booked in my son's name as our RS directly connected to his room.  As others have said, just a word of caution when booking different stateroom categories.  We were told repeatedly when we booked that my son would receive "Retreat" privileges (Luminae, etc.) since he was a minor booked in a connecting stateroom to the RS - when we got onboard, it took the onboard staff many calls shoreside to confirm this and made for an uncomfortable first evening when we weren't sure he would be able to go to any Retreat spaces for the duration of the cruise.  I now have very little confidence in what I am told over the phone with Celebrity, quite honestly, and will never book different categories again.  For our December 2023 cruise, I am booking two Sky Suites, which unfortunately don't connect, so there is no confusion.  I really do not know why Celebrity creates connecting staterooms in different categories and then offer all guests different perks - it's very confusing and inconvenient when trying to travel as a family.

3 hours ago, cdn_tbird said:

If you look at 10174 & 10168 you'll notice they can connect to the 2 middle S3 Sky Suites. The nice thing about this setup is if you book the sky suite and adjoining inside cabin for your kids, if they are under 21, they will get access to the Retreat amenities. 

 

We were actually in 10214 in Nov. no issues with the Magic Carpet. Personally we loved the location, and wasn't a problem getting to Luminae or The Retreat.

 

Another thing to keep in mind, some sky suites have a support pillar on the veranda about 8 inches from the railing which can be annoying. If you group the sky suites in groups of 4, the center 2 have the support beams (eg. 10214 & 10208 no post, 10212 & 10210 have the post). You can find pictures on CC that will show you which cabins have support posts.

 

This is great info - thank you!

23 hours ago, terrydtx said:

We like being further forward on Deck 10 on the Port side of the ship. No MC to deal with and easy walk up to deck 12 for Luminae and Retreat lounge on deck 14.

That's super helpful - thank you!!

10 hours ago, chilliano said:

Just off Apex.  We booked a Magic Carpet suite cause the price differential was about $500. 
 

I was on the balcony twice when the Magic carpet went by.  It was kinda cool.  No one was on the MC,  hubby was in the room both times and he DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE.  It took about a minute for the MC to go by.  Our balcony was large and had no obstructed views.  The entrance to our room was through a hallway that had an interior room.  Meaning?  We didn’t hear room door slams at all because our room was inset,  I would totally book an S2 room again,  we were in the middle, and next time, I’d go for a room on either side that had the extra window on the balcony 

 

 

Great to hear you enjoyed your room!

Here is another question - you mention your room was through a hallway with an interior room - were other staterooms connected to that hallway?  I'm just trying to figure out which two rooms would be best to book to be closest to each other either via this hallway or a connecting verandah.  Thank you!

Thank you all so much!

Hi everyone!  We are considering booking 2, side-by-side Sky Suites (S1) on the Apex and could use some help picking a location as we've never sailed this class of Celebrity ship before.  I am looking at Deck 9 and Deck 10.  I don't want to be anywhere near the Magic Carpet.  Is there a side of the ship you prefer?  Cabin set-up (I see some have single sofa beds, some doubles, some none).  Thank you for your thoughts!  

On 9/7/2022 at 2:09 PM, minidonuts85 said:

I was gonna say, I wanna do the waterspouts platform!!! 
 

Foxys is def a great spot especially at night, it’s the happening place to be on island! It’s a bit more of a walk now from the tender because they drop off over at the ferry dock in Dog Hole instead of the central customs dock in Great Harbour. Still manageable. 
 

 

@MarLieb not sure what your hours are in port but if you’re there during the evening hours, su-Arizona makes a good suggestion in Foxys as a night time spot for dinner. Great lobster! 
 

 

Yum!  Thank you for the suggestion!

8 hours ago, minidonuts85 said:

My pleasure and feel free with any other questions. 🙂 
 

We got home last night at 10:45pm and already missing it. 

7 hours ago, Strenz said:

Agree totally with Minidonuts85, we love White Bay, Yost, Gertrude's, the best conk fritters ever. We adore  the Holland House, great place to stay and if you are leaving on your flight late the same day as your return, terrific to hang out, have lunch etc. Enjoy. We are on the Surf 12/10 for 17 days. Happy Sailing

Thank you, both, so much!  This is so incredibly helpful - thank you!!

1 hour ago, minidonuts85 said:

Hi! We actually just spent a week on Jost Van Dyke. Definitely take a taxi to White Bay where there are a few beach bars including the famous Soggy Dollar bar where you can try their painkiller drink. But also check out the others bars, all maybe a hundred yards from each other. Gertrude’s is our fave hangout and you can pour your own drink and enjoy Chef Olgas island cuisine. No need to book the expensive ship tour. Safari taxis will be waiting at the tender pier ready for you all. $5/pp each way plus a couple bucks tip. Here is a pic of white bay. Our guesthouse is on the far right. 
 

St Maarten- Great Bay/Philipsburg beach is very close easy to rent beach chairs and umbrellas. The Holland House Hotel has a great bar/food and $25 for chairs/umbrella with shower and bathroom facilities. Attached a pic from our room at the Holland House and you can see the port. Have a guavaberry colada! 
 

St Thomas- taxi to Sapphire or Megan’s Bay Beach or if time permits, check into a ferry over to St John to the national park beaches like Trunk Bay. There are a couple of craft beer spots near the port that we hit up when we are on our way to the airport- Tap and Still and Leatherback Brewing. 
 

Gustavia and Little Bay we haven’t been to. 

WOW!   Thank you SO much!  This is incredible info - I will look into everything you mentioned.  I so appreciate you taking the time to reply and giving me such great feedback on your experiences on the islands - THANK YOU!!

11 hours ago, minidonuts85 said:

We just left the BVI and spend a lot of time there. 
 

If you haven’t been to The Baths before it’s quite nice and interesting to see. 

In the past they’d tender into the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour. But they have also resumed the beach day bbq at Prickly Pear Island which is on the other side of the island in the north sound. Not sure if your itinerary specifies prickly pear?

Thank you so much for your response!  Our itinerary doesn't specify Prickly Pear - maybe I will call and see if they are planning on doing that.  The Baths sound very interesting!

Do you happen to have any thoughts on the other ports?  We will be going to St. Thomas, Gustavia, Little Bay, St. Maarten, Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda - we were going to do snorkel and beach day excursions where available, (except St. Maarten where we were just planning on walking to Great Bay if possible) - do you know if there are beaches or other interesting things to see within walking distance of where we would tender in these ports?  I really appreciate your feedback!

We have booked the Star Pride for a San Juan and Virgin Islands cruise.  I have picked our activities for most ports, but I am stuck on Virgin Gorda.  Windstar doesn't list any excursions for this port and I don't even know where we will tender onto this island.  Does anyone have any info on where we will tender or ideas on what we should do on this island?  Thank you!

Thank you so much for your post!  We are thinking of doing this voyage in December (they will do the reverse route - Colon to San Jose - on our expedition).   Did you happen to do a pre-night through Lindblad prior to your voyage?  We will need to fly into Panama City a day early and I can't get a straight answer as to whether Lindblad will provide us with ground transportation if we book our pre-night through them.  Alternatively, I could just book a hotel and find a transportation company on my own, I suppose, but I've never been to Panama and feel unfamiliar with the area.  Thank you for any info you may have!

Hi!  We just booked an August Canada/Greenland/Iceland cruise and I'm finding I'm a bit late with very slim picking for private guides in St. John's and no shore excursions offered by our ship as of yet.  Is the city walkable from the port?  I see there is a hop on/hop off bus - would this be accessible from the port?  I'm trying to put together a DIY tour of the town for my family if I can't find an excursion or a guide.  Thank you for your thoughts!

11 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Follow the instructions from the cruise line at the time of your cruise and not stuff you read on the Internet. The cruise lines will have agreed protocols with each port of call at the time. 

Sure - I would just like to know what those protocols will be prior to booking.  I know Canada just revised their protocols yesterday, so I guess I will just wait to see if more info is released by NCL. 

We are interested in booking a NYC to Canada cruise on NCL for August, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how the testing requirements will play out to adhere to Canada's requirements.  I read that we need to test 72 hours prior to disembarking in Canada, but the first Canadian port isn't until day 4 of the cruise.  Will this mean we will have to test prior to boarding in NYC and then, again, on the ship to disembark in Canada on day 4?  

4 minutes ago, Ravbo said:

It may take several weeks.

Thank you.  I won't panic so much now!

I cancelled a December 2020 cruise prior to my final balance being due last week.  I was told I would receive an e-mail stating the FCC but haven't received anything.  I am expecting 100% FCC equal to my deposit.  I also don't see anything in my X cruise account showing I have FCC. Do I need to call at this point or does it typically take a few days to receive the e-mail?

My son and I once boarded a DCL ship and were walking around the pool deck when we walked right by a very good friend who lives in another state that I hadn't seen in a while.  I had no idea she was on that sailing.  We ended up sitting together at dinner and had a fantastic time.

Another DCL cruise - we were doing a Norway b2b with another sailing to Scotland and Iceland.  Close to the end of the first cruise, I noticed an old friend of mine from college had posted on FB that she and her family were heading to Copenhagen to go on their first cruise - turns out it was our second sailing!  We had fun catching up on that cruise.

I was once in line for a ride in WDW when I started chatting with the people in front of me.  Turned out we all had gone to the same high school up in PA just a few years apart.  small world.

We've sailed on Celebrity Summit twice with our son (he was 11 and then 12 on the cruises).  To put things in perspective, we have also done 5 Disney cruises, 3 NCL, Paul Gauguin and Lindblad.  He really enjoys Celebrity.  It's very laid back compared to DCL and NCL.  The kids clubs are much smaller and more personal and, because of that, he had an easier time making friends in his age group.  Except on sea days, he also, typically, only spent evenings in the kids club.  The rest of the time was spent on shore excursions and having meals with us.  I think if your kids are ok with a less sensory-overloaded experience (my son really couldn't handle the chaos of the DCL kids clubs any longer), they will enjoy themselves. 

21 hours ago, TFree said:

So, for example, if I had a February 14, 2021 cruise date, under your interpretation I could change it for the same price to the same cruise from mid-January to mid-March 2022 (so long as I make the change by August 1, 2020).  That is interesting, and not the way I originally read it.  Hopefully someone will check this out, and if I don't see anything I may eventually call my TA to check this out.  

 

Tom & Judy

That is how I interpreted it.  We have an existing booking for December 2020 (during a holiday sailing).  My interpretation is that I can change our cruise to a holiday cruise in 2021 (or within four weeks of our original cruise date in the following year) on a similar itinerary (Caribbean), class of ship (we are on the Summit) and similar stateroom (we have a CS, so I would assume they would need us to book CS or higher).  I looked at similar December cruises for the following year and nothing is of interest to us (very similar itineraries to what we've already done), so we will probably opt for the FCC if we don't feel comfortable sailing in December 2020 (if they are even sailing then).  I was pleasantly surprised that we were included in the offer this far out.  Our PIF isn't until September, so I have plenty of time to decide.  We have a non-refundable deposit and I am thrilled we can now use 100% of that toward a different cruise if need be.  They could very well have kept us to the original terms and conditions of our NRD.  Honestly, I was about to write off cruising altogether, but with RCCL and X signing the letter to get their crew home and now this extension of Cruise with Confidence to their guests, I feel a little better about X as a cruise line.  I love the fact that we can now use our deposit and not even cruise until May 2022 if need be.  Just gives us some breathing room.

17 hours ago, trucker den said:

We booked our cruise for next year and decided to book suites. It will be my wife and I in one suite and our 3 children in the other. They are all teens and are under 21. The suites get the premium drink package. Will that be automatically downgraded to the premium non alcohol package? Also what do you think my chances are that since the non alcohol is cheaper, they will comp the third if I call? I know its a reach but you never know.

What type of suite did you book?  When we booked a Royal Suite two years ago, the beverage package was included for all of us (me, husband and 1 child).  We were in a Celebrity Suite last year and the beverage package was only included for me and my husband.  Neither of us drink alcohol, so X saved a ton of money on us, but they did not include a beverage package for our son.  We "circumvented" this, in a way, by upgrading to the "Drinks and More" package (if memory serves, it cost about $120 to upgrade, but we then got $100 in casino chips, which we used, so it was essentially $20).  With "Drinks and More", you get your mini-fridge stocked (we asked for all non-alcoholic beverages), so my son had access to bottled water and soda all cruise long for far less than what we would pay to purchase him a beverage package.  He could also order sodas in Luminae and get whatever he wanted in the Retreat Lounge (not the sundeck - they were checking for beverage packages up there).  I should point out, again, if you are sailing in a Royal Suite or higher, there would be no need to do this as your mini-fridge will already be stocked.  I mean, you could certainly call and ask if they would comp the third beverage package, but I would have some other ideas in hand in case they say no.  We just found the combination of "Drinks and More", Luminae and the Retreat Lounge provided my son with enough beverage choices so we didn't need to purchase an expensive package for him.   

We've been on the Summit twice, both times in suites.  Luminae is fantastic!  It was actually even better on our second cruise. If you were in a Royal or Penthouse where specialty dining is included, I would say go for it, but I would not spend extra on a specialty restaurant when staying in a Sky Suite.  Luminae is really good!

15 hours ago, mac_tlc said:

So much for the Herald article, now that Royal has announced a major repatriation effort to get crew home all around the world. 
 

mac_tlc

Yes, I saw RCCL and X signed the CDC letter.  Kudos to them:  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article242471226.html