colville2002

Thanks. I had read online the drop off can get very busy so it might be quicker to be dropped off across the street and walk

On 2/24/2024 at 6:11 PM, nwcruiselover said:

Taxi lines are long.  For efficient Uber/Lyft pickup, walk one block away from the water to 11th Ave.  I’ve never waited longer than 5 minutes for a ride there.

Any tips for drop off - we could almost walk it but will have 2 kids and luggage so will likely get an Uber, should we be dropped off across the road or are the queues not too bad?

I'm having the greyed out redeem button problem as well but got an email overnight (in my junk folder) that it's a known issue and they're working to resolve it

You can't claim for any cruises beyond 31 July 2024 at the moment though even if it is working

9 minutes ago, tdtanc said:

Hey. Thank you so much for this thread. Have a few questions and thanks in advance for the answers.

 

Arriving June 8th to Southhampton on Regal Princess. Would like to book princess transfer to Heathrow. Flight at 3:45pm.

 

1. Was gonna call princess agent and book this pre cruise. Sounds like it is $59 per person. I have onboard credit but it sounds like they can not use that pre cruise. Should I just wait to get on the ship to book to use this credit or do I run the risk of it being full?

 

2. Someone mentioned the times for meet up for departures. If you self disembark can you just get an early transfer that easy?

 

3. Sounds like I would need to deal with excursion desk on the ship which I usually try to avoid for true logistial answers. 

 

4. Anyone know of a private transfer that is $150-$200?

 

Todd

We used West Quay Cars last time and will likely use them again this year. They're £130 to drop off at Heathrow from Southampton, that's for a sedan at least. Local taxi service and responsive to emails

I was told via email I didn't need to check in for the second cruise of our B2B next month. Guessing from this I'm better to do so

7 hours ago, Highpeaklad said:

 

You could book the submarine independently if that’s all you’re interested in. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the ship. 

 

Its a great trip btw

Thanks, we may do it that way instead but I think the Celebrity submarine + bus works out quite a bit cheaper over 5 people - no idea why it's so much cheaper than the submarine tour on its own.

My son wanted to do it in December when we stopped at Grand Cayman but due to weather it was cancelled - we've promised him we'll try again this year 

20 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Where can I find the Captain's Club email?  I'm all over the website but can't seem to find the "Contact Us" page.

I just used the customer service address and got a fairly quick response 

CustomerServiceUK@celebritycruises.com

Although I'm sure I've seen a Captains club address before

I had a similar issue for a submarine & bus tour in Barbados - emailed Captains Club to be told no lunch included, no break to have lunch and not allowed to take any food off the boat. Tour runs from 10.45 until 2.30 I think it was.

I think we may take the tour since the combined submarine/bus tour is cheaper than submarine on its own for some reason - and just decide on the day if we skip the bus tour section and head back for lunch

2 hours ago, ladyascot said:

We are in the UK.   We cannot download Netflix programmes and watch them elsewhere.  You will need to be on WIFI to stream and it is unlikely that it will work well on board.   Amazon Prime - can be downloaded and saved to watch later (watch the date for expiry when downloading).   BBC iplayer likewise.   Occasionally both will not work abroad, you cannot download BBC overseas only in the UK via the Iplayer.

Interesting info re cables/etc etc.   I rather like the break from the ‘usual tv’ we watch and set recordings for home for anything particular.   We watch the moview onboard (does the Connie have a movie theatre?) occasionally on the TV.  I usually download loads of stuff (especially podcasts) for the plane, and then find we have hardly watched anything if the ship is fun.

Bit like the kids - the less screen time the better.

Have fun and safe travels

 

 

It is possible to download Netflix programming in the UK and watch them overseas, I'm just back from a trip where we did that.  If you try to watch while connected to WiFi, you may get an issue as the default is streaming and it will notice you are not in the UK so won't get UK programmes (instead restricted to those available where you are) but as soon as you are off WiFi, it reverts to downloaded versions and they are available again.

The downloads will expire a certain time after you begin watching them, but it is easy to refresh them with WiFi access in a port - no need to download again, it is just a re-connection that enables it again.

15 hours ago, Provence55always said:

That’s sounds great. Did you book direct with hotel?

Yes, they're very responsive to emails and they even price-matched one of the day room comparison site rates.  I think we got the room for $105 plus taxes, came to about $117 total.  That is for payment on the day and I think cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand.  The bathroom is about the size of a standard stateroom on a ship!

The airport shuttle runs every 30 minutes on the hour and half-hour but in our experience, if you're on the shuttle at 20-25 past, they will check for any other waiting guests then just take you round.  Only 5 minutes or so to the terminal

4 hours ago, Provence55always said:

Thank you. I have only just found that destination board! Looks like we will taxi to Miami airport and book a day room. The Marriott looks nice. It's has an outdoor heated pool and shuttle to the airport. 

I can recommend the EB Hotel at Miami Airport, the rooms used for day rooms are the deluxe suites and they're huge. Nice quiet pool outside as well with comfortable loungers, we had it to ourselves just before Christmas

We travelled to Hyatt Place 17th St from Miami Airport last month using Rideways - flight was delayed by over two hours but driver was there on arrival.  Cost was around £55-£60 for an executive car - was around £5 for a standard car.  Nice trip and he met us on arrival, took us to the car park then fetched the car to the nearest point of the car park to the terminal building.

Coming back to a Miami Airport hotel from the cruise port, an Uber was $56 plus tip I believe and arrived within 5 minutes of being requested.  For some reason Rideways was coming in at around £80 for this trip

Thanks everyone. We're basing our quotes on two rooms

Thanks, that's what keeps coming up in my research, lower numbers of kids so more attention. He'll love that! We're just off Regal Princess and the room the had for his age was great so hoping for something similar 

I'm looking at possibly booking the Southern Caribbean 11 nights on Equinox in October with my wife, my son (he will be 5) and my parents but have a few queries. 

Firstly, if I search for four adults and the family balcony cabins don't show in the results, does that mean they're booked or is this a cabin type reserved for 5 meaning you have to call for availability? Does anyone have experience in how this cabin tends to be priced compared with two standard balconies? 

We may prefer connecting cabins anyway. I don't spot any on the hump from a quick check, is that right? If so, would we be able to remove the partition between the balcony on neighbouring balconies on the hump instead? Also, are all connecting cabins connected by the front door joining together or do some have internal connections? 

Finally, does anybody have any information about the kid's club as in typical activities or pictures of the rooms /facilities for his age group? 

It's been over 5 years since we sailed with Celebrity so will be my son's first time but he has 2 with Royal Caribbean, 1 with Carnival and 1 with Princess so far and he loves cruising. 

Independence was the ship for our son's first two cruises (at 1 and 2) before the refurbishment and he loved it.  Too young to be left at the kids' club at that age though.

We're taking him to Cozumel this month and he chose the Atlantis Submarine tour - we're booked with the cruise line but they price matched the local tour operator

https://www.cancunadventure.net/tours/atlantis-submarine/

15 hours ago, jr8934 said:

I accidentally came upon this thread  I am now quite scared. I reserved through Valuetrips.com for Dec.22nd. Is there a way I can find out if I do, indeed, have a room? Leaving the next day for a cruise. Now I don't know what to do. Help, please! Joyce

 When I reserved through Value Trips they took a long time to confirm so I ended up emailing Hyatt and getting my confirmation from them before I got one from VT. 

I emailed Hyatt on Wednesday after reading this thread about my booking (for 8 December) as I checked the Hyatt website and booking.com etc to see that night was sold out.  They have confirmed we have a room and have marked our booking not to be selected for relocation since we will be arriving around 9pm with a young child, having been travelling for around 17 or 18 hours when we arrive.  I was updating them on our arrival time anyway since our flights were changed.

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I am confused. You indicate the functions are not available unless you log in, but then say a perp can access the info without logging in. What am I missing?

I'm not on the ship but I believe that logging in is simply a function of holding the medallion to the reader, nothing more.

Just now, AmazedByCruising said:

 

That's definitely simpler but when people don't understand what they're expected to do, I can see how that leads to problems. The TV screens were probably added later because of those.   

 

Maybe they should also have kept the buttons inside for "normal" operation.

 

Did guests understand after a few days into the cruise? 

We were on the inaugural cruise so TVs were there from the start but perhaps discovered in testing! I think people did get used to it but I do recall a few times still with people jumping in then asking if it was going to their floor. 

16 hours ago, kruisey said:

On the Canadian Princess site it is mentioning $900 off Black Friday deal?  but when I look into cruises no discount?

Their office is closed.

The UK Black Friday deal did not kick in until midnight (UK) time so perhaps the same for Canada - is it showing now?

On 11/21/2018 at 12:49 AM, AmazedByCruising said:

  

With 4 or 8 elevators next to each other and having a much better guess at which deck guests will want to go to, I'm convinced elevators can be more efficient and even nicer to the guests. If one elevator is bringing someone from deck A to Lido, and rightly "guesses" that another 7 people on deck 3 want to go up just to deck 4 for dinner, it should probably simply skip deck 3 and return later. The actual movement is very cheap (measured in time) compared to people going in and out. It's also more convenient, and less time-consuming for guests to not have to find their way out if they're in the back and want to leave while everyone else want to stay.

 

Anyway, I'm not convinced that asking peope installing sensors is the best way to find out if it would work or not. And I'm sure that the people who sold this to the cruise line showed enough evidence to at least give it a try.

We were on the Carnival Horizon in April and they had a new elevator system with no buttons inside.  You pressed a button to call the elevator then indicated which floor you required and the system then told you which elevator to go to.  This seems a simpler system (for the elevators if not the users) to get the same effect.

We did experience quite a few people not knowing how to work them though, despite the TV screens with instructions on repeat.  My 3 year old son loved it 

Finally got around to checking the BA site again, I can pay to select seats for the domestic flight but seats are only available at check-in (24 hours) for the international leg.  This correlates with Princess where I can't make a request for the domestic flight but can for the international so between the two systems I could request seats for all of the flights.

We're booked with American but it is operated by BA, hopefully we're as lucky

I wish, so might make a difference travelling economy 

Thanks I'll definitely put the request in then