ShawninFL

I won't order a cake or celebration package again.  We were on the Eclipse for my father's 95th birthday and I preordered a birthday cake and to have his room decorated for the big day.  As of 8 PM and being in contact with guest services, his room still hadn't been decorated.  The cake was delivered to his room at 9:45 PM.  

In the past we always found FBC to have better pricing on international flights than we could find with published rates; however, in the last year, we have found FBC to be higher or no better than we could find direct.  So we booked directly with the airline.  This way, should something go wrong, we can deal directly with the airline.

On 2/14/2024 at 8:54 PM, luv2ndhalf said:

From other threads in the forum I am trying to get a clear picture on getting from the cruise port (I am thinking it will be Stadsgarden) to the Vasa Museum. Is going by ferry the only way to get there? 

I am traveling with someone who has mobility issues....If we need to take the ferry, how far is the walk to get there?

It looks like there are limited daily tickets sold.....did you purchase your tickets before hand through the Vasa website? TIA

We were there last year.  We overnighted in Stockholm and took a private tour on day one. Our guide recommended going to the Vasa Museum on day two so we decided to do that (on our own).  I purchased tickets online the night before and we took a taxi to and from the port.  I believe the taxi was around $25 each way.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Vasa and were very glad the guide suggested it, as we didn't think we wanted to to when planning our trip.  There are elevators in the museum to get those that have difficulty walking up to all the levels.

On 2/6/2024 at 3:46 PM, petuniaflower said:

Any clue how far the beginning and end location of the zipline is to the port?

We did the Flam railroad with zip line/bike ride back to Flam on our own back in 2022.  The zipline is 1380 meters long.  My 74 year old aunt went with us and to this day talks about how the zipline was the highlight of her trip.  I was an amazing experience.  The package (train, zipline and bike rental) cost us $175 per person in 2022.

Unless this in your only opportunity in life to get to Berlin, I would skip going to Berlin.  It is incredibly far for a cruise excursion.  I would say visit Rostock and roam around Warnemunde for the day.  

We did the Norwegian Fjord in 2022 on RC Jewel OTS.  I will list the ports we visited on our cruise, what we did and what the cost was (I maintain spreadsheets for all our trips to track cost).

Flam:  We booked the railroad, with zipline and bike ride back to town.  We booked this on our own and the cost was $175.00 per person.

Honningsvag:  We booked a tour separately from the cruise line through Blue Puffin Tours called the North Cape Tour.  It cost $146 per person and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

Molde: We rented a car for the day.  We had to take the bus to and from the airport, but it was easy enough to do and only required about 15-20 minutes each way.  The cost of the rental with full coverage insurance was $282.00 for the day.  We drove from Molde to the Atlantic Highway.  We had a nice leisurely drive at our pace and enjoyed being able to stopp where we wanted when we wanted.

Stavanger:  We booked a boat tour through the fjords on our own separately from the cruise line.  It left from right in the center of town where we disembarked the ship.  I don't have the price listed on my spreadsheet for this tour as our friends booked the tickets for this an we reimbursed them, but I believe they were around $75.00 per person.

This cruise was amazing, especially if your doing it around the summer solstice where there is 24-hour sunlight.  I is really amazing being out an about on the ship at 2 AM and its still completely light outside.

I hope this helps.

Shawn

We live in Florida and quite a number of years ago, we decided, enough of the Caribbean.  We needed to venture out.  We've done quite a bit of the Mediterranean and then moved on from their.  For us, I would suggest the following:

1.  Japan and Korea

2.  Iceland

3.  Norwegian Fjords

4.  Baltic Sea

Japan absolutely blew us away.  We were apprehensive due to the language barrier, but we hired private guides in all the ports and had the most amazing time.  We are planning to return to Japan and feel completely confident in getting around on your own.  It's safe, fascinating and the food is amazing.  Our cruise had 3 stops in Korea and we loved them as well, but if I returned to Korea we use guides as we didn't feel as confident getting around.

We've been to Iceland twice.  Loved it both times.  Next time we go it will be flying in and renting a car.  It's so easy to get around, so much to do and explore.  And as you travel around, the landscape changes from lush to something lookin like a lunar setting.  There are wonderful waterfalls, thermal pool and hicking.

Norway is probably the most beautiful landscape we've ever seen.  Just absolutely beautiful.  Other than Oslo, many of the ports are these tiny towns where the cruise in and out of port and the touring is the highlight.  This cruise requires research and preplanning, but it is so worth it.  Go during the summer up to the North Cape and experience 24 hours of sunlight for a few days on end.  When we went we were lucky enough to have beautiful clear weather resulting is 5 straight days of the sun never setting.  

Finally the ports of the Baltic are great.  Stockholm has an amazing sail in and sail out traveling through the archipelago.  Tallin, Estonia was a unexpected gem for us.  We loved it.  Copenhagen is a great European city with so many things to choose from to explore.  

The main things is don't be scared to get our of your travel conform zone.  Explore new places and eat new foods.  Happy traveling!

2 hours ago, JDPCruisers said:

When you cruise out of Southampton thoughts on flying into Southampton or London and then transportation to Southampton?

You're going to end up flying into Heathrow in London.  On our Baltics cruise in July, we only flew in the day before, so we hired a private transfer from Heathrow to our hotel in Southampton.  we stayed at the Holiday Inn right next to the port.  Walked to checkin the next morning.  Easy as can be.

5 hours ago, JDPCruisers said:

We are considering Scandinavia and Norwegian Fjords on Apex June 2025 out of Southampton. Would appreciate thoughts on cruising/destinations that time of year with crowds in ports, kids on the ship, weather, and any other thoughts? Thanks.

We did the Norwegian Fjords two years ago.  We did a 12 night on Royal Caribbean going all the way up to the North Cape.  There were very few children on the ship and we were the only ship in each port each day so we didn't have any issues with overcrowded ports.  It was an amazing cruise.  Experienced 5 days of complete sunlight...kind of crazy having to wear sunglasses at 2 in the morning. One piece of advice, is do your research and plan your days.  We rented a car in two ports and drove ourselves (The Atlantic Highway and Langfoss Falls).  In other ports we had pre-hired private guides to take us around for the day.  In Flam we bought train tickets up the mountain and then zip-lined and biked back.  We actually looking at a 7-night on Apex in 2025 that will get us to Geiranger and Bergen that were not on our itinerary 2 years ago.  If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer if I can help.

I rarely drink in my day to day life, but when I'm on a cruise, I enjoy ordering what I want when I want it and not having to worry if it's over my covered limit.  There are so many options at all the different bars and I like to try things I wouldn't normally try.  I also made the decision a number of years ago, that since I drink so seldom that when I do, I'm only drinking the good stuff.  So for me, the Premium Package is the way to go.

I really don't see the big deal in the change to a 10% deposit.  Even if you're booking a $15,000.00 per person suite.  It's still only a $1500.00 deposit per person.  You'd still have another $13,500.00 per person due by final payment.  In my opinion you can afford that level of vacation, you should certainly not bat an eye at the deposit.

I believe Ascent will have the upgraded Sunset Bar.  The Sunset Bar on Edge (which Apex is the same design) was a major disappointment for us.

On 6/14/2023 at 10:42 AM, PKB said:

Would like to make a reservation for Murano now before sailing in 2024 for a group of six - three couples booked in separate cabins.  How can we book a table together without one couple paying for all six at booking?  

Last year for my Dad's 95th birthday dinner in Tuscan Grille, we had 9 people (4 couples and 1 single).  We were directed to individually make and pay for the individual reservations through the website/app and then email celcruiseenhancements@celebrity.com.  They said try to pick times close together, but just make the reservations and they'll coordinate with the ship to combine the reservations and time.  Expect to be flexible with your reservation time.

1 hour ago, aussiegirl64 said:

Hi,

 

can you please tell me the company that you used for the car rentlal.

Thanks

Dawn

Sixt Rent a Car

On 6/2/2023 at 7:13 PM, neverlaysup said:

I actually find Celebrity to be much cheaper when I book All Included versus RCL and purchasing the items separate. That being said, different strokes for different folks. 

 

I completely agree.  Our RC cruises are always more expensive than Celebrity when you get to the bottom line.

On 6/11/2023 at 9:44 PM, binro01 said:

Are taxes, fees and port expenses refunded to the shipboard account as a refundable OBC? 
 

I have had that happen on another line. Wondering if that’s the same policy on Celebrity.

 

We might have a cancellation with one of my Brothers in their room. One will still be going.

 

Wondering what will happen. Should we call Celebrity before heading to the port? Just wondering if anyone has prior history with a similar situation. 

If someone no-shows at the port, the port fees and taxes are refunded to the individuals credit card.  My parents had a last minute medical emergency the prevented them from traveling and the cruise line credited them those fees back to their credit card and they then filed an insurance claim for the remainder.

On 6/11/2023 at 11:04 PM, tlf said:

Thank you for the info!

You're very welcome.

On 6/6/2023 at 9:10 PM, Majkman said:

So, we leave next Friday (6/16) on the Solstice for Alaska. It will be our 6th Celebrity cruise, but 1st time on Solstice. We LOVE this cruise line.

 

So, today, I am putting together my travel itinerary folder and I come across our luggage tags. And I happen to notice that we have been moved from 9278 (a prime veranda) to 9125, which I also believe is a prime veranda, but not next to our friends who were next door to us.

 

I contacted my TA, and she says she has no notes as to who or how this would happen, and she will get on it in the AM.

 

Now, our kids are in an inside cabin, and I did bid on a veranda for them, but have not received an acceptance or rejection yet (I know that should be about 2 days from sailing) and they are still located in their same cabin.

 

Has anyone heard of this happening before? Just a move, without notification? It's not gonna crush the trip, but I am just surprised. I have always held Celebrity to a higher standard after moving up from Carnival, then Princess, and I do not have plans of changing now that I am moving up in the Captain's Club Universe, but still.....what the heck?!

 

Keep the seas calm and the Sun shining,

 

Andy

Since, the post covid restart, we have now had this happen twice.  The first time we were move from an obstructed view balcony on deck 6 to the very last balcony on the rear port side of deck 7.  Although the new cabin was unobstructed we would have much preferred our centrally located although obstructed view balcony.  I only discovered it when I printed out our luggage tags, he had received no notification of the change.  The second time is on our upcoming Japan cruise in October.  We received notification the the cruise was oversold with options to change sailing dates, but we were never told they had already moved out cabin from an inside on deck 9 to  window on deck 3.  We prefer higher decks, but considering if we want to go, what they gave is what we get, we'll be fine with it.  We've never received any notification that our cabin was specifically changed.  I only know from logging into our Celebrity account.  It is what it is....a day on a ship is better than any day at work.

6 hours ago, tlf said:

What car rental company did you use? 

We used Sixt Rent a Car.  I booked it online directly with them for port side pickup and drop off.  As I said, an agent met me directly outside the gates of the port where the car was waiting.  We returned the car to the same spot and dropped off the keys to the cashier in one of the gift shops right at the port.

10 hours ago, gooners1968 said:

We were on this cruise too, our 1st on celebrity after 10 on RC. This gave us Elite status so we made the most of free drinks between 5 and 7

We booked a guarantee balcony and was allocated deck 6 with a partial obstruction. We were then successful with our minimum bid up for a concierge cabin on deck 10. Room steward service was fantastic and we couldn't fault him

We also booked late but managed to get late sitting in the MDR. Impossible to get a table for 2-we were told there were 150 requests that could not be fulfilled. We met some lovely people on our table and in fact rather enjoyed out 1st experience of shared table dining

I agree with your negatives-the combination of cold weather cruising and a full ship made it difficult to find seats anywhere. We entered and left the buffet numerous times after finding it impossible to find a table. We thought the buffet food was a higher standard than RC but the MDR food no better. Portion sizes were small and we were all ordering sides!

Norway ports of call were great apart from Haugesund which was disappointing. The Loen skylift at Olden was outstanding and not to be missed

We are back onboard on 24th July for the Scandinavia itinerary(we have to sail in school holidays as my job is term time only). Hoping for more time to be able to use the balcony!

If you ever return to Haugesund, I recommend renting a car and driving to Langfoss Falls.  Beautiful drive and a great waterfall to see.  It was a great day at our own pace.  The rental agency had the car with an agent right outside the gates for us to get on our way immediately.

In all honesty, we took 2 Celebrity cruises in our late 20s and early 30s.  Although the food was the best we've experienced on any ship we've sailed, the overall atmosphere at the time was not for us.  At the time, the only option for dinner was the main dining room at either 5 or 8:30 PM.  Entertainment was geared towards an older generation and we at times found ourselved bored at night.  Fast forward 10-15 years and we gave Celebrity another try on a Soltice Class ship and we have been Celebrity loyalists ever since.  That cruise on Silhouette blew us away.  The modern ship, wide array of dining options, lots of entertainment options and the Martini Bar.....my happy place.   Although I said we're Celebrity loyalists, that doesn't mean we'll only go on Celebrity, but when looking for a cruise, we check there first.  With all this said, we'd never told others it was full of old people.  We always said that although we had a good time, we preferred Royal Caribbean as it had more entertainment options and was a bit more laid back.  Our tastes certainly do change as we age.  

3 hours ago, Peelboy said:

If I want to see the northern light and the deep fjord what’s the best month to go,preferably with celebrity HAL or princess.  Thanks 

The northern lights require darkness to be seen, so winter is the best time to see them...not a mainstream cruise timeframe into Norway.  We did happen to see the northern lights on a transatlantic cruise leaving Akureyri, Iceland in early September about 5 years ago.  So if you can find a sailing in the fall that goes well north into Norway, you may have a shot at seeing them.  It's truly just catching the lucky break of the conditions being right in the atmosphere while also being under clear skies.

We did the "Land of the Midnight Sun" cruise in June 2022 and absolutely loved this cruise.  We ended up choosing Royal Caribbean as our first choice, Celebrity, was only offer 7-night options and we wanted to travel all the way north to Honinngsvag.  And Holland America and Princess were cost prohibitive to our budget.  We were blown away by Norway's natural beauty, even more beautiful than Alaska.  We had 5 clear days/nights of 24 hour sunlight.  Quite the amazing experience still partying at 2 AM in full daylight.  Our itinerary included Molde, Tromso, Honningsvag, Flam, Alesund, Haugesund, and Kristiansand.  Yes, our itinerary missed Bergen and Greinger, but we'll catch them next time.  Yes, cruising out of Flam was amazing, but in all honesty, after an hour or two for looking, you do move onto other things. Make sure to schedule tours to seek out the natural landscape in ports.  We rented vehicles in two ports and toured ourselves.  We took the train in Flam, ziplined down the mountain and rode bikes back to town.  The others we hired a private guide or did a private tour.  We weren't disappointed in anything we did.  Definitely do your research for this cruise so you don't miss seeing something you find out you were near after you get home.  Happy cruising,

7 minutes ago, debsjc said:

I also have a 50% offer on the Silhouette. The only issue that puts me off is that most of the Sky Suites are on deck 12, under the cafe and pool deck, and i've read they are quite noisy during the day and night. 

Many Sky Suites are actually on the pool deck level so the pool noise doesn't really affect them, but these same suites on the pool deck ore under the Ocean View Cafe.  We had a Sunset Sky Suite on this deck and there was some chair moving noise and people talking during the day, but nothing that bothered us.  We actually loved the cabin.  

If your cruise is outside final payment which it should be if it doesn't sail until November, as long as you don't have a nonrefundable fare on the two cabins, I would think you could make the change without penalty.  If your current cabin reservations have a nonrefundable fare, then there will be cancellation penalties to factor in.