Antonintassie

Hi

I travel for work alot and whilst daytime is normally jeans and boots I generally have to dress formally in the evenings ( Middle East and Europe tend to be after 5 pm focussed) .Instead of a tux I travel with a dark suit and take the jacket onboard with me and wear my formal boots this keeps the jacket less wrinkled and allows me reduce weight with luggage.

Interesting enough you rarely see a tux in Europe as evening wear it is generally dark tailored suits .

As we plan for our cruise,* my girlfriend and I are trying to decide what to do about formalwear. We both enjoy getting dressed up, and while we couldn't care less how other people dress on formal nights, we personally enjoy the opportunity to get dressed up (I'm the sort of person who bought his first tuxedo at 19 upon seeing a vintage Bill Bass in a thrift shop, "just in case."). This will, however, be the first time we've cruised out of a port we couldn't drive to and we're a bit reluctant to commit a large portion of our (paid) checked baggage to formalwear. Does anyone have any tips for packing a gown and tux for a plane ride so that we can enjoy them on the ship?

 

* Yes it's over a year out. I like planning in advance. It helps me savor the anticipation. I'm strange that way, I suppose.

Dont worry I find flying very very boring if I could drive I would but when you lie on an Island you are stuck with it

Hi The cruise is 14 day as 7 days was to short for the distance we have to travel. It only has couple of sea days and as we will be getting into Florida after a 23 hour flight I suspect we will not surface fom our suite for the first sea day.

Also it is straight after New Year 2015 so we are hoping for a mixed bunch of fellow passengers .

RCI seemed abit unrefined for us very resort style ,my son dislikes onboard teen activities as he is in an older age group .

We are all compentent divers so this part of the world should be good for us

We have sometime in Miami and the end of the cruise which will be interesting as we have only been to the USA in winter ( skiing) and in the Northern states.

We did look at smaller ships including AZAMARA but the feedback we got from previous passengers was that it was not that "family friendly" what ever that means .

Hi All

After a major family roundtable we thought we would give cruising another chance and hae booked a Celebrity Carribeann jaunt

Consider it Rest and Recovery a drinking straw can be handy

hotel becher

Hi

We sailed on the Royal Princess during this time in 2013 and Celebrity ship was in the same ports normally.

One thing is there are very few sea days and full on port stops ,we had been to most of the cities before except Turkey so we had some local knowledge.

Our teenage son loved Europe and the days ashore some prior research makes them fun and enjoyable.

The Celebrity s class ship passengers we saw where mainly retired people as was our ship but they seemed to have more families and teens than the Royal Princess.

Our son just chilled out on the sea days ( only 3 ) and recharged for the next port as did we ,you do alot of walking in Europeon cities .

Entertainment on our ship was good ( magic and comedy )but pretty tame certainly nothing to worry about with a teen .

It is a great time to go to Europe the weather is stable and not to hot ,the Euro holiday season is over .

Make time for Barcelona and Venice if these are your start or stop ports great cities for families

My family and I (Dh, dd15, ds 12) have cruised twice before (Royal, Carnival) and are thinking about a Mediterranean cruise this year. I like the itinerary for a September cruise on Celebrity Reflection. I know that late September is not school holiday season for kids in US/UK/Europe as it is for us in Australia, so there would not be many (or perhaps any??) kids on board.

 

So my question is: would there be much for my kids to do on the ship if there are not very many other kids their age? (there are 2 sea days on this cruise)

I realise that Celebrity doesn't have the activities of some of the other cruise lines. Has anyone had experience cruising with kids in the off season? Are there places on the ship that the kids are not allowed to go? Also, I have read very mixed reviews of the entertainment. If there is not great (or age appropriate) entertainment, what is there for the kids to do in the evenings?

 

All input, suggestions and experiences greatly appreciated!:)

(and I have already had a look at the Roll Call for this cruise and there are no kids mentioned)

Bring it on I would say it would make a change from the Princess cruise we suffered through

Hi

We normally go mid Sept the weather is stable and not to hot or cold ,Turkey maybe a little cooler.

Australian school holidays can be around this period and we travel with our older teenage son on our Royal Princess cruise there were only around 20 under 18 but it seemed like 3000 + over 90 ( not a very lively crowd)

Kind Regards

Tony

Can anyone please tell me the best dates/time of year for a Mediterranean cruise? We would like to go when the kids are in school and it isn't too hot. Are fares cheaper in the Spring of Fall? Which sailing should we do and which should we eliminate? Just got off the New Year's Eve 11 day cruise on the Equinox and despite the weather had a wonderful time. Looking forward to planning the next one.

an s class all year would be nice rather than the quick NZ /Aust coastal jaunt

Hi

Thank you for all the replies ,we decided to give Celebrity a try in the Carribeann ( never been to this part of the world)

quote=greengrunt8;41099797]Thank you for the reply

The money would be better spent on improving the product frankly ,we had a suite on the Royal Princess Grand Med cruise .First timers and generally travel every year and in our late forties .Princess does not deliver a refined experience and it almost ensured we would not cruise again.

We have decided to give it another chance this time with Celebrity ,

Not sure if someone posted this yet - I found this very interesting. Quite a break from the past for Princess:

 

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/new-$20m-princess-brand-campaign-includes-return-to-tv.html

Based on the demand cruise lines are experiencing in our part of the world they could send us a newer ship to replace The Century and a Sydney to Singapore and Singapore to HK cruise on a more regular basis

On another thread reporting on the New Year's sailing of Reflection someone reported on a conversation that took place with the CD as follows:

 

NEW SHIP PLANS FOR CELEBRITY: During his question and answer period at "Behind the Stage Door" on Friday afternoon, Andrew, our cruise director, answered a question about Celebrity's future plans for new ships. He said that Celebrity had built the 5 S-Class ships over a very short period of time and as they opened each new ship, Celebrity would assign experienced persons from the existing ships to the new one and that resulted in staffing and performance problems in some of the other ships. Celebrity realized this problem and has decided not to embark on any new ship construction projects for the next 3-4 years at least. Instead they are concentrating on improving the ships that are already in the fleet with better crews, better on-board entertainment, and new cruise destinations.

 

Andrew then went on to say, (I am not quoting, this is my memory of what he said) I know this might not sound exciting, but I can tell you that within the next year Celebrity is going to make a very exciting announcement that will make our loyal Celebrity cruisers and our shareholders very happy. It will be a significant event in Celebrity history. He gave no further hints or information despite a couple of follow up questions from the audience. So something else we can have fun speculating about on the boards for the next 3 or 4 years as we know that it is what 1 year means in Celebrity time, right!

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Can we speculate on what Celebrity is likely to do next -- the "Next Big Move" ???

 

The reference to shareholders makes me believe that it is strategic rather than operational. I cast my speculative vote on the launch (possibly by acquisition, but more likely by start-up) of a river cruise line.

 

They seem to have concluded both that the premium ocean cruise market is nearing a short to mid-term saturation point in which financial returns and risk do not support new builds [reading between the lines and not stated that way, but plausible that it is their belief], and that they need to pause and consolidate their expansion and lock-down their quality standards [our recent experience is that Celebrity is accomplishing this goal].

 

In Europe and elsewhere river cruising is expanding faster than ocean cruising. Many dedicated ocean cruisers are now on second, third and fourth visits to certain coastal ports and desperate to find wholly or mostly new itineraries; river and ocean cruises can be connected b2b in many ports. and cross-promoted. The core competencies (hotel and transport) are the same, just different execution ---- and economies of scale can be realized! Finally, from past readings I vaguely recall that buried in RCCL's 10-K is information about their varied interests in Europe, Asia and elsewhere beyond their three brand names familiar to most of us; I found one or two very brief notes indicating that RCCL does have some joint venture/investment interests on a small, quiet scale in river cruising.

 

All just wild speculation on my part based on what I would do if I were in senior management of RCCL; what would you do as THE NEXT BIG MOVE???

Hi

With taxis we generally round it up to the next dollar to eliminate the change issue

Private drivers depends on the service if its exceptional maybe $10.oo

Not sure abour tour guides I have never used one at home

Wait staff depends on the service but in a good high end table service resturant maybe $10.00

tTps are really based on service here rather than a fixed fee as the average hourly rate is higher

I know that when eating out USA style tipping isn't the norm. How about tips for tour guides, taxi, private car services etc?

Hi we are in a similiar situation and I do not think this issue is only the domain of Celebrity .

The cruise industry as a whole does not seem to be very strong in dealing with clients in a specific wants,needs, demographic and this is not always age specific .

As you indicated I think they are very dependent on TA feedback and direction rather than customer input

Very true and unlike airlines which can parkup planes the cruise industry has limited options to deal with excess capacity without taking a big financial loss

As a recent first time cruise family late forties with an older teen on the New Royal Princess in the med I suspect alot of cruise companies need to attract new cruisers .

Our cruise had a handful of first timers on a ship of 3000 passengers and we had a very interesting in-sight into cruise dempgraphic as we had a suite and attended the regular elite passenger drinks and eats prior to dinner.We felt like the strangers walking into the small town saloon .It did not phase us but it interesting ,I personally think that cruise companies will need to offer a more innovative product for forties somethings with older children if the want to build a sustainable customer base into the future.

We really did not click with cruising the first time around but we have decided to give it one more chance and have booked a future cruise on the Eclipse in the hope that Celebrity will give us a refined product with a wider cross section of fellow passengers

Hi we spend alot of time in Dubai taxis are cheap and plentiful the port is not far from the mall

Thank you for the reply

Plently of Brits getting cooked in pools and hottubs in Spain so its news to us .

Hi We travel to the UAE as a family on a regular basis ,never felt unsafe or threatened by the place or the culture the people are friendly helpful and welcoming .If you are in anybodies country you play by their rules

Hi

The cruise we are looking at is port intensive Asia ,even I could not cope with a TA a couple of sea days and I am done with the ship I need to get ashore and explore

Based on two TA trips on Azamara, IMO, your teenager will be quite bored. There really isn't much for young people other than table tennis and the fitness center. And even for younger adults, it's a pretty sleepy experience. On one crossing, a small group of 40-somethings went to the disco each night, but only a dozen max, and they were all alone. Daytime activities are mostly trivia games, and nighttime, mostly eating. If the itinerary and ports are attractive to your family, you could make this work. Otherwise I would recommend a line with a younger demographic.

Hi

We did look at it but we have done this area a couple of times already and the weather is not that great in Jan

Have you considered the Paul Gauguin?

Hi All

We have tried to find something else in our desired timeline but all the other cruise product in Asia at this time is well below the normal quality standard we would book .Crystal had a couple of cruises but we wanted a Hong to Singapore or reverse so we could have a couple of days in each city

Thank you this was the particular cruise we had in mind as had an interesting itinerary and we have avoided Asia in the past as we are not into resort based holidays and land travel was a hassle with my work contact requirements .

Thank you this was the particular cruise we had in mind as had an interesting itinerary and we have avoided Asia in the past as we are not into resort based holidays and land travel was a hassle with my work contact requirements .

If your son is interested in the itinerary, suggest you reconsider. If he's most interested in younger on-board entertainment then you'll need to look at larger ships. We did the Discover Vietnam and Thailand on Journey this past Feb. We were actually surprised that it was a good mix of demographics from 40s on up. Lots of Oz passengers. But an active passenger group due to the interesting ports. Another consideration is that the large ships can't get close to places like Saigon and Bangkok. The smaller ones can sail right up the rivers and dock in the cities. The Az officers and crews really do set it apart from the rest!