DevonianCruiser

I’ve just found this thread - wow very informative and interesting. We’re doing this in December from HK to Singapore and thank you for this, it will make researching it so much easier 🙂

We got the corner on deck 9. Very happy with choice.

Thanks everyone for your input 🙂

1 hour ago, astrocat said:

We are currently in an aft corner on Solstice. 1198 deck 10. Very happy w the view! 

That’s good to know, thank you. Hopefully the one deck below yours but on the other side is still available 🙂

Thanks to you both 🙂

I’ll see what is available when the travel agent calls me back, but I quite like the idea of a corner suite 🙂 

Thanks everyone, much appreciated:-)

Hi 

we’re looking a the sunset sky suite on the Solstice and it lists loads of perks, but on the Aqua sky suite (which looks like the next grade up) it says access to a Persian garden. On the celebrity suite it has other things as well, but not the Persian garden, so just wondering if the retreat perks are all the same, but some just have other listings on the website.

we want to book the sunset sky suite but wonder if it’s got the access to the sun deck? And what’s the Persian garden, is it the sun deck?

Thank you.

4 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

 How old is the child?

She would be 8. She’s very well travelled.

Thanks for the replies regarding the drinks 🙂

I’ve been to HK and Singapore before but looking at a December cruise between the two that takes in various stops in Vietnam and Thailand. Whilst I’m happy with all the destinations being suitable for our daughter, I just wonder if there’s many children onboard those type of cruises? It will be around school holidays as it’s in December.

Also we’re both diamond on RC so get 4 free drinks a day, is that transferable to Celebrity? I seem to think it is and may well have asked before but can’t recall.

Many thanks.

Great to hear 🙂

Off the 30 plus cruises I’ve done, my favourite ever was on the Jade so she hols great memories for me.

I’ve been looking and checking my current booking for December. We’re in a GS. Now nearly £1,000 more than I paid. Never sure how half these sales work really as the price seems to go up more often than not.

Come back Richard Spacey. - that fella was hilarious 😜

1 hour ago, ringers0815 said:

We are from Ontario.

I lived in Mississauga with my uncle for 6 months as a 19 year old in the late 80’s and loved it there.

Thanks for all your photos on this thread, they’ve been amazing. Enjoy your trip around Australia - if your driving from Brisbane and can stop off in Noosa, I highly recommend it 😎

Wow some amazing photos of Sydney and Newcastle 😎

So makes me want to go back down under! We’ve planned it for Dec/Jan 2025/26 to coincide with Christmas holidays but these pictures are making me want to go right now 🤣

Keep posting your stops please 😎

Lovely photos and takes me back - we did a two week cruise from Sydney around NZ in 2019 and it was fantastic. Auckland was lovely and I recall the Bay of Islands was just perfect weather 😎

Random question that’s just occurred to me - if you do a world cruise how does your status increase? Does it only go up when you get off at the end or do they count it in sectors? 
 

I was thinking you could go from zero to diamond status in a few months and get 4 free drinks a day if they do it in sectors.

Some beautiful photos here 😎

Anyone know if they do the poker tournaments on the Explorer on sea days?

I can hear you all saying ‘why do you ask Devonian Cruiser? 😜

Okay since you all asked I’ll tell you . . . . . 
 

Back in March 2013 we went on Explorer from New York down to the Caribbean. Can’t remember much about itinerary. Anyway I digress. On the sea days they held a poker tournament which I’m guessing was around $60 or $70 and the winner and runner up each day made the final table on the last sea day of the cruise. 
 

I somehow made it to the final and even more surprising won the final. I won a weeks cruise on the Oasis for December that year. Oasis was a fairly new ship and was an amazing prize. There was a poker tournament for all the winners on all the tournaments throughout the fleet. I guess that there were a few hundred of us. First prize was $50,000 I recall. 
 

I lasted about 3 minutes 🤣

Anyway had a free cruise and a cocktail party.

The Explorer cruise we’ve got booked in December has 4 sea days so enough for a tournament. . . . If they still do them of course

P.S. Don’t recall any karaoke - good or bad 😉

Nor that Perry fella, but I think he was on Navigator on our European cruise a couple of years back.

😎

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

If Voyager does a reposition to Brisbane I’ll be on it.

But it could be a place holder for another ship,it happens all the time. They swap a similar ship at the last minute. It could possibly be a place holder for Navigator. There’s speculation about Navigator being bumped by a Quantum class.

Ah okay so they book a slot so to speak with a ship and can change it. Never knew that - thanks.

1 hour ago, FOPMan said:

It takes about 4 hours in "normal" daylight driving to get from Miami to Key West with minimal stopping. But there is alot to see, both in terms of specific places such as Bahia Honda State Park and John Pennecamp. which is an underwater park. The Miami-Key West drive is not really a drive one should do at dark, at least not as a first-time visitor. My guess is that you'd be on the road at 4:30 or so if your flight landed at 3 and you need to clear customs/immigration and pick up a car.

 

It is not the easiest drive in the sense there will be traffic to contend with. Ehile ig is the Keys Highway, if is not typical US highway driving. It is, however, a generally pretty straight road.

 

As some alternatives, you could visit Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami, take a day trip into the Everglades, and/or explore other parts of South Florida. You could also take the Brightline train to Orlando and visit Mickey Mouse, Sea Eorld, and/of Universal Studios. Any/all might be very attractive to an eight year old.

 

You had also asked about a part-day trip before your return trip. The issue is that the airports want international travelers at the airport 3 hours before the scheduled flight time to clear outbound immigration. It doesn't often rake that long, but they don't want people missing flights because they gave bad advice. And if is true that it CAN and sometimes does take the full tome, especially if there are many people and/or there are individuals that have problems that take time to sort out.

 

Again, there are lots of things to do/see, if only for a few hours. The larger issue is what to do with luggage. If you are on an excursion/transfer from the ship, the luggage will often go under the bus. Dome cruise lines offer baggage transfer service separately. Third-party companies that provide day tours can also accommodate your luggage. Most attractions do not have short-term parcel storage. There are a couple of places that specialize in holding your luggage for a few hours.

 

Safe travels!

That’s fantastic, thanks for the info and definitely food for thought. Really want to see the Keys but probably not likely we can do them and any of Miami. Plus with the 4 hour drive back not sure we’d want to do that on the day of the cruise. 
 

Maybe we’ll concentrate on Miami this time and look to do the keys another day 🙂

We have 3 nights before our cruise. Land at around 3pm. We were supposed to go to key west last year and it didn’t happen. Just wondering if it’s worth a short visit - so maybe hire a car and drive down after landing and having 2 nights there followed by a night in Miami? Or is it too much to do after a 10 hour flight? 
 

We’ve been to Miami before but it was 10 years ago so not sure whether we should just have 3 nights there. We’ve an 8 year old.

One other question, our flight home is at 5.20pm, does that give us any time to do something after docking in the morning? Only ships tour o can see at the moment is recommended for international flights after 6pm.

2 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

It’s got a lot of bookings in Brisbane after that. I don’t know how it’s going to get there.

 

https://www.portbris.com.au/cruise/cruise-ship-schedule

Out of curiosity I looked at this link and can see Voyager of the Seas in December 2025 in Brisbane, but nothing on the RC website. We’re looking to do Australia and Asia again around then.

15 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Yes, they stagger the release of itineraries every year - that's the norm. Follow the 2025-26 deployment thread for info.

Thanks I’ll look at that 🙂

We’re looking to do a cruise at the end of 2025, maybe beginning of 2026 and the cruise dates only run to April 2025. Any reason why RC don’t have them out yet as they seem to in other destinations? I’m hoping they are going to continue sailing those regions.

Just found this thread LB, I’ve been following your Singapore one and didn’t realise you’d done all this too. Sounds like a fantastic holiday indeed. Shame you missed the Sounds as they are superb, but things happen. Plus it’s always an excuse to come back 🙂 

Can you let me know what the motion was like on the two Australia cruises and the Singapore one? We’ve done loads of cruises and my wife is generally fine, but we did a two week one to NZ from Sydney in 2019 and my wife found the Tasmin sea quite rough and felt poorly for two days. We intend to spend around 5 weeks in Asia/Australia at the end of 2025 with at least 1 cruise thrown in so would be good to know.

Ironically we were on the last cruise to go into lockdown (Britannia) whilst in the Caribbean and had to sail back to the U.K. over 10 days instead of flying back and the Atlantic was calm as a pond. 

20 hours ago, Ashland said:

We were on her twice in 2022 and will be on her again next week and have her booked for an 11 nighter in 2025 and have absolutely no concerns about her at all.

Good to know. We did Explorer years ago and are back on in December 🙂