petronella

We were on Eclipse from June 21st to July 5th and had square, foil wrapped chocolates every evening. We did eat them and enjoyed them - heck, we were on holiday!

One evening, we bumped into our cabin attendant as she was leaving the room and my husband jokingly asked for an extra chocolate - she put her hand in her pocket and gave him several. The next evening we came back to the usual one choc on the pillow and laughed and said it was a shame we didn't get extra again.

And then I noticed this little bowl on the counter ... :D

We aren't seasoned cruisers at all (though my friends and work colleagues think I'm obsessed!!) and with a total of 50 nights at sea, 22 are with P&O, 14 with Royal Caribbean and 14 with Celebrity.

We've loved them all. With P&O we were on medium and small sized ships, with few children, even though the 14 nights on one of the P&O ships was in the UK school summer holidays. Two years ago we were on Royal Caribbean's Independence, during the UK school holidays with 1500 kids onboard - yes, we knew they were there but not for one second did they detract from our enjoyment. We were onboard with my son, daughter in law and two grandkids and only planned to meet up for dinner each evening, though we bumped into each other constantly!

We LOVED Indy (to my surprise) and I was twitchy about going to Celebrity. It's different. More sedate, less 'fun' stuff happening and we did have to search out a place to hang out in the evenings. The Martini Bar is the obvious place but it seems half the ship thinks so too - so we found our niche at the Sunset Bar and what a find! Great bartenders, great service (though a little chilly in the Baltic) - but Celebrity kindly provides blankets :)

My only true gripe was the lack of vegetarian main course options in the Oceanview Cafe (my fault for being a veggie, I guess, for meat eaters it was paradise!!)(And I did mention this at the time and on the survey).

Anyhow, if I had to choose between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity it would come down to the price/offers and itinerary and nothing else. The crew on both ships are just the best and I love 'em all!!

As we've been on Indy only the once, maybe I'm not the best person to comment, but like you, I was a bit apprehensive before our Med cruise out of Southampton in 2012.

It was the UK summer holidays and there were 1500 children on board, yep, 1500! Did we see them? Of course we did. Did it affect our cruise experience? Not one tiny bit. That's probably because we didn't hang out where the kids are likely to and stuck mainly to the Solarium on sea days and in the over-18 only Olive or Twist in the evenings. Nothing against kids (our two grandchildren were also onboard with their mum and dad and we can just about remember being kids ourselves!) but they were the places we liked the best. In other words, you don't have to be surrounded by children (or even other passengers).

We loved Indy and loved the RCI experience. We had a wonderful cabin steward, Larisa, the absolute best MDR waiting staff, especially Irene and spent many enjoyable hours being entertained by the barmen in the Olive or Twist.

Food was good in both the MDR and WJ (far better than I could ever rustle up!), drinks were large and we spent two whole weeks in the sun without having to worry about cooking or cleaning.

Go with an open mind, don't compare and you will have a great time. We are on our inaugural Celebrity cruise next (in 7 days!) and are approaching it in the same way we approached Indy. I fully expect we will enjoy it just as much :)

I just saw this link posted by P&O on their Facebook page - explains why the allocated check-in times are in force, even though we've not been given one!

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-environment/future/ccplans/cruisepassengers.aspx

We sail from Southampton in 2 months and we have been given a check-in time of 11.30 - 15.30 .. it's our first time with Celebrity so we aren't Captain's Club members and we are in a regular veranda cabin.

I understand that improvements were being made to the approaches to the port /cruise terminals (I guess with ensuing traffic congestion), but they were due to be finished about now, so maybe that's why we haven't been given a time slot :confused:

If you are sailing into Gibralter, make sure you are up and at the rail very early as there is a strong possibility you will see dolphins. We saw literally hundreds alongside the ship (Independence) on the sail in a couple of years ago, including adults with babies. It was a specatcular sight and one I will never forget, I feel so lucky we saw them.

On a previous Med cruise, some people saw whales (we didn't unfortunately) and you will definitely see lots of sea birds - we saw gannets off the coast of Portugal and terns ducking and diving whilst in port in Civitavecchia.

Happy wildlife spotting!

With that attitude, I agree that you most certainly will enjoy your maiden Celebrity voyage, as well as all your Celebrity cruises that follow after that one.

 

What got us hooked on Celebrity was the wonderful way we were treated by everyone we encountered on the ship right from our very first cruise when we had no loyalty club level or "status" at all.

I'm even more excited now!! :D And I have absolutely no doubt that we will be treated wonderfully, as we have been on our other cruises.

Den, I do completely agree with you about there not being 'elite' passengers and it was indeed the point I was trying to make.;)

We will be taking our first Celebrity cruise in June and I do find that when I see discussions about 'elite' perks on any ship, I skip over those posts as I know I am unlikely to ever achieve that status on any line. I don't have a problem with that, am just realistic that time, money and work/family commitments mean that we can't cruise often enough to get there (unless we win the lottery, might be a different story then!)

But it doesn't matter, because I am pretty sure that we will enjoy our maiden Celebrity voyage just as much as those who have sailed on Celebrity ships dozens of time (possibly even more so, as it will all be so wonderfully new to us!)

We are cruise novices compared to many posters on here (14 nights Royal Caribbean and 22 on P&O) and until I wandered onto CC, I had no idea there was even such a thing as an 'elite' passenger! And what do you know, seems that all lines have them and we've just never noticed :)

Mike, we are on the same cruise next June so was excited to read your review .. I wasn't going to read the UK part but I am so glad I did!

As well as loving reading about your adventures, with special interest in the Lake District part as my Dad and ancestors going back several hundred years were from there, your review of Bath has actually made us change plans! We will be visiting Bath in December for the wonderful Christmas market and I had already booked our hotel .. but I've now cancelled it and booked the Ayrlington! And I've have taken down the details for SottoSotto too - we are definitely going there one night and I shall make sure I book early to secure a table!

It was also good to hear that you were treated so well by my fellow countrymen in your hours of need - the Brits can be quite nice really :)

Have only just started the cruise portion of your review, but I know I will enjoy it as much as I did Jim's. Even though our turn is still 11 months away, I'm already excited and planning and can't wait to learn more.

Thanks for putting it all together.

Jane

Wonderful pictures! We are one day hoping to do an Eastern Med cruise from Southampton one day, hopefully on a RCI ship, if they do that itinerary! We have only been on Indy and would love to try one of the smaller ships.

I believe the sculpture is 'Alison Lapper Pregnant' by Marc Quinn. Not sure if the one in Venice is the original as there was a replica used in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London :) Alison is a British artist, born without arms and with shortened legs ... her son is now about 14 or 15 I think. An amazing lady.

Have really enjoyed your review Rico and your photos are wonderful. Hope you all have many more adventures to come.

Having fun watching all the ships leave :)

Especially looking forward to Indy's departure as we have my cousin-in-law and his wife on board .. and it was them who reassured us that RCI was a great company to sail with when we weren't sure. They were right! Have a great trip guys (hope they got my text telling them to go port-side and wave!)

Had a wonderful 2 week Med cruise on Independence with my son and his family last August, made extra special by the fantastic crew.Wonderful memories.