lud016

March 25, 2015

Some Friday things to do-
Downtown-Burj Khalifa

Middle Eastern breakfast at Reem al Bawadi......yum! It is located on Mohammed bin Rashid Blvd (formerly Emaar Blvd) in front of Burj Khalifa

Dubai Mall alternatives to shopping

have a coffee or lemon mint drink at one of the many cafes along Burj Lake

Burj Khalifa "At the Top" is open in the morning

Dubai Aquarium

Become a pilot on Emirates A380 simulator (located in The Village area of the mall) there are 12 destination routes you can choose and sessions are 30 min

I guess you have to do a little shopping since you are at the mall:D

Bring home some Arabic accessories for your home or yourself from Al Tarab located near the entrance to At the Top and Bloomingdales. They have a nice selection and no t-shirts! LG level of mall

A few doors down-select some Arabic sweets from Wafi Gourmet. You can choose your own selection as well and they will wrap them in a small hard plastic container that is great for traveling. If you go up a level to the Gold Souk area where the Cheesecake Factory is, you will find several small shops that sell different perfume oils. They are happy to explain and let you try different scents and you can even select your own bottle. Some even sell the fragrant bukhoor that is burned in your home for a nice scent. A variety of prices for every budget and a fun experience.

Creek Area-Deira side (spice and gold souk side) though souks will be closed, it is interesting to walk along the creek and see the working dhows starting near the Radisson Blu; you can also ride across the creek in an abra. You can even rent an abra by the hour and cruise the creek. They hold 20 people so get some on your roll call to join you:D rate is 120 AED ($33) per hr.

Madinat Jumeirah-walk around the property as it is quite beautiful. The shops open at ten but you can have a scrumptious breakfast at Al Muna in al Qasr Hotel or grab a coffee at Starbucks/Costa before the stores open

Breakfast in the world's largest atrium at Sahn Eddar in Burj al Arab. Yes, you probably already had breakfast on the ship but this is even more memorable, though a definite splurge. Reservations are required and smart casual dress

If you skipped breakfast, you must be waiting for a Dubai Brunch and if you are at Madinat Jumeirah you must be going to the award winning Al Qasr Brunch. Seeing is believing! Reserve ahead as it is popular and the premises beautiful

I like the Dubai Metro but the port would be too far to walk from any station and I think a taxi might be your best option out. The tram is now running in the Marina area but you will need a taxi to get to Madinat Jumeirah. If you are considering taking the water ferry by the Marina Mall, the metro station is now called the Daamac Station for the luxury developer.

http://www.jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/dubai/madinat-jumeirah/facilities/souk-madinat-jumeirah/

Information you may find useful

http://www.uaeinteract.com

Thank you "lillybob" for all this information............if you agree I will copy it to the board for our sailing for others to take advantage of.

March 24, 2015

Although the till receipts 'may show' the 15% and the guest still signs the receipt in the usual way ( I took out a promotion only recently) I suggest you discreetly ask a bar crew member the next time you're onboard a Cunard ship what they prefer.

We have always found that a large number of guests still tip even when getting there drinks through a drinks package............surely this is to the staff members advantage, they are getting tipped twice!

March 24, 2015

RADA is not on QE, The ship which started this promotion, although it is now being tried on some QM2 and QV Cruises in the future. The Till receipts show the added 15% which the Bar staff receive when Cunard started this promotion on QE.

The Drinks packages work well with other cruise lines so why should it not work with Cunard. The Ship after all is run for the passengers and shareholders profit, not for the Crew !

The Crew are usually ' looked after ' by most passengers anyway.

Just because the customer in this case is not paying the tab, should not make the crew not want to serve you.

Our sentiments exactly, a wine package for dinner is great but it's those before dinner cocktails and G&T's also the late night ports that could be well accommodated as well with a Drinks Package...........hopefully for our sakes they will be in by the 2016 QE World Cruise!

March 24, 2015

It's a while since we did our last Cunard cruise, most of our cruises recently have been with Royal or Celebrity. On these we have been able to purchase "Drinks Packages" allowing us to enjoy any type of drink (beer, spirit, wine, cocktail, specialty coffee etc) up to a certain per glass price, whenever we liked and for the length of the cruise.

I can't remember what happened on our cruise on Queen Mary, as much as I've searched the Cunard web site I'm still non the wiser! After a couple of river cruises we have got used to just walking up to the bar and getting what we like without a drinks tab at the end of it all and so love the idea of buying packages.

I can see they offer wine packages, presumably for X number of bottles but what about cocktails, spirits and beer etc is there a "general" Drinks Package?

Can anyone on this board help with this info please!

March 24, 2015

Other than wine packages where one gets a selection of bottles of wine do Cunard have a Drinks Package that covers most other types of drinks eg Whisky, Baileys, Martini, or even a beer?

Or, is there no alternative other than to pay by the glass when wanting a drink in one of the bars or lounges?

As much searching as I have done the mention of wine is all that I seem to be able to find!

March 22, 2015

Just came across your thread, we are planning a day in Dubai as well.

We have been a couple of times before and so have seen many of the 'must sees' and this time are planning on the trip on the ferry looking at the city from the water!

One thing we really enjoyed when we have been in Dubai is taking a trip on the Metro. I believe there is a stop near the port as well which will be useful to get back to the port from Dubai Marina. We really enjoyed the fact that for most of the trip (we went to the end) it runs above the city so you get an excellent view of what Dubai looks like "from above". It is extremely easy to catch, runs very regularly, and spotlessly clean!.

Unfortunately this time we will be in Dubai on a Friday which might makes things a bit harder for us............Friday morning is a Prayer Day and most things are closed until early afternoon.

maybe lilybob might be able to add more info on "Fridays"

February 8, 2015

Thanks John & Bob We will look into those places.

Exmouth was a mistake.........we mean't Exeter. We had just picked that out as looking central and on a motorway.

February 8, 2015

Later this year we have a couple of cruises booked ex Southampton. They are on different ships and we have four nights between them.

We are from Australia and have toured the UK and spent time in London. We really enjoyed the brief time we spent in the south and have nice memories of Bournemouth, Lyme Regis and St Ives.

This time we would like to hire a car and find some central place to stay say around the Exmouth area so we can come and go each day and see more of that part of the UK, we have heard that there is some beautiful countryside down that way.

Can anyone recommend a nice village to stay, or "must see" places that we really should visit in our four days. It will be early October when we are there.

January 28, 2015

Please see this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157569

It contains important information you should have received by now, but since you haven't I would not wait for Celebrity to contact you, you'll need to get in touch with them if you are not happy with the changes they have made, and there is a time limit for this.

Thanks for the heads up on this Cruisestitch - I have just sent an email off to my TA

January 28, 2015

This cruise is now listed as departing from Venice and finishing in Istanbul. It doesn't go to the Black Sea but does the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. I assume the unrest in the Black Sea area has meant an itinerary change????

Yes, I have noticed they have put up several new itineraries.

As yet Celebrity have not contacted me about the changes, they have changed one of my bookings to show as being on the new itinerary, the second booking still shows against the old itinerary regardless that it is no longer for sale.

I'm not rushing, guess they will contact me eventually, I'll be interested to see what they have to say............most of the ports now available we visited last year on our Adriatic Coast cruise, Venice to Rome on Silhouette.

January 16, 2015

We have two cruises booked for September 2016 on Celebrity Constellation -

1. 8N Italy & Greece (Rome - Istanbul)

2. 12N Black Sea & Greek Isles (Istanbul - Istanbul)

We have noticed that these two cruises are no longer showing on the Celebrity Web site, on making an enquiry they told me they are sold out!

This seems highly unlikely that a cruise that only went on sale late 2014 and do not sale for 20+ months is sold out.

Does anyone know if these cruises are actually sold out or cancelled?

October 21, 2014

Fortunately, I really don't care what everyone else believes - or doesn't. I have no reason to believe that a bartender would tell me that they were getting the tips, if in fact they were not. On what planet would it be in the bartender's best interest to lie to a customer in order to avoid getting a tip?:confused:

Yes, I agree - I believe there are tips included in vouchers.

Recently I was on a celebrity cruise and vouchers were provided for free drinks due to overflow in the Captains Club Lounge. We could use the vouchers in many lounges during irestricted hours. One of the bartenders told us how the bartenders all liked to serve the elite members with these free drink vouchers - it seems they received $1 for every voucher they collected.

So yes, tips are included and if a passenger chooses to not give extra they should not be looked upon as being mean crown and anchor members!

September 23, 2014

We have just returned from our holiday which included a cruise from Venice to Rome and then a few days in Rome. We always like to plan and have everything organised well in advance, make sure that we see as much as we can while away.

After much research and reading many online reviews we decided to contact All Around Italy re a tour for our Naples port stop and also an excursion for one of the days that we were staying in Rome. Mary was a delight to deal with and answered our questions and emails very promptly, we asked for Fabrizio to be our guide and were very lucky to secure him for our tours.

Fabrizio was the best guide we have experienced, he not only had an excellent knowledge of his country but was friendly, charming and with a good sense of humour - he did not bore us with too much history, something which many of the tour guides we travelled with did. He was fun to travel with.

All Around Italy structured our tours to our needs. From Naples we had a wonderful tour of Positano, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast with a short visit to Pompei (our request that we concentrated more on the scenery than the ruins and history).

While in Rome we had a full day excursion to Umbria where we thoroughly enjoyed the countryside and quaint villages of Orvieto, Bagnoregio and Todi.......a wonderful day.

We also used All Around Italy for our transfers from the port to Rome, shared a vehicle with six other CC Members. This was not only economical but it was nice to have a driver waiting for us to take us straight to our hotel!

We can't speak higher of Fabrizio and All Around Italy ......... hopefully we will be in Italy again one day and Fabrizio can show us around a bit more!

July 14, 2014

So that makes sense, I think.
However, is the Aussie FBC / US FBC difference for the use of TAs (i.e. can only use Aussie FBC with Aussie TAs) or is it applicable for the actual cruise (Aussie FBC for any cruise or just Aussie cruises).:D

My understanding is it relates to the data base that the FBC refers to, the data base it is issued against. Aussie TA's only access the Aussie DB and so if you have a FBC issued in US$ they will not be able to apply it against a new booing that you try to make.

Usually I book myself direct with RCI/Celebrity, recently when C had data problems and I cold not enter my booking, I tried to phone, it was out of hours so although the call centre is in the US it works on AUS business hours. I thought I'd be smart and called one of the US phone numbers to get info........no luck they could not access my booking as it was on an Australian booking number. I tried at a higher level (there was a problem) and still no one could access the booking.......I had to wait till the Australian call centre (in the US) opened...ie 9-5 Mon-Fri.

I don't think there is any reference to the cruise that you are booking.

Frustrating :mad:

July 14, 2014

I am a little concerned with an earlier post in this thread regarding getting OBC associated with on board future booking as I planned to book a few cruises while on board Quantum and transfer to a USA agent. Will be making more enquiries when on board.

When you purchase a future booking certificate while on board you need to purchase it as either an Australian OR US open booking.

The booking reference that is issued on your future cruise certificate will become the booking number for your new booking once you decide on your cruise. This booking reference is relative to a certain data base and cannot be accessed from the other.......what you purchase will also define what you pay US$200 or AUD$200

July 14, 2014

Actually, there is a local RCI office, and they do have local pricing.

However, they send their accounts to be handled through the US.

P&O Australia do an equivalent thing by sending their accounts through the UK. But the rest of the operations e.g. itinerary, pricing, ordering is done locally.

The RCI Office in Australia closed down at the beginning of this year..........all calls go through to the US now

July 14, 2014

Just watch that the dollar does not drop.....we lost out BIG TIME on a European River Cruise booked through the US, we ended up paying it out six months early to stop it costing us more!

July 3, 2014

Has anyone else tried the web site today...............I can actually access the booking pages:D

June 21, 2014

Hi all,

We apologize for your inconveniences over the past couple of days. We have been upgrading our servers and that caused intermittent disruptions. We believe the issues have now been resolved. If you continue to experience any errors, please call Celebrity Website Assistance (1-800-722-5941) or email webissues@celebrity.com.

Definetly not fixed........below is what I receive each time I try to enter the "Book Now" page that shows the prices for each cabin grade.

Please explain why this error does not appear on everyones computer? Is it related to browser or browser version?

THE ERROR MESSAGE:

Your application has generated an error

Please fix the issue before it has been released to production.

Message:

Request that failed: /booking/reservationStep1

JSP that failed: /WEB-INF/jsp/layouts/booking/bookingLayout.jsp

Status code: 500

Exception: java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "April 01, 2015"

Stack Trace: org.apache.taglibs.standard.tag.common.fmt.ParseDateSupport.doEndTag(ParseDateSupport.java:189)

org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.includes.booking.stateroom_005fpricing_jsp._jspx_meth_fmt_005fparseDate_005f0(stateroom_005fpricing_jsp.java:846)

org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.includes.booking.stateroom_005fpricing_jsp._jspService(stateroom_005fpricing_jsp.java:191)

org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)

javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)

org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:432)

org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:390)

org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:334)

javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)

org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)

org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)

org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:749)

org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doInclude(ApplicationDispatcher.java:605)

org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.include(ApplicationDispatcher.java:544)

org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspRuntimeLibrary.include(JspRuntimeLibrary.java:954)

org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:684)

org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.include(PageContextImpl.java:678)

org.apache.tiles.request.jsp.JspRequest.doInclude(JspRequest.java:123)

org.apache.tiles.request.AbstractViewRequest.dispatch(AbstractViewRequest.java:47)

org.apache.tiles.request.render.DispatchRenderer.render(DispatchRenderer.java:47)

org.apache.tiles.request.render.ChainedDelegateRenderer.render(ChainedDelegateRenderer.java:68)

org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.render(BasicTilesContainer.java:259)

org.apache.tiles.template.InsertAttributeModel.renderAttribute(InsertAttributeModel.java:188)

org.apache.tiles.template.InsertAttributeModel.execute(InsertAttributeModel.java:132)

org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.InsertAttributeTag.doTag(InsertAttributeTag.java:299)

org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.layouts.booking.bookingLayout_jsp._jspx_meth_tiles_005finsertAttribute_005f3(bookingLayout_jsp.java:952)

org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.layouts.booking.bookingLayout_jsp._jspService(bookingLayout_jsp.java:367)