AmberCascades

There is no self-disembarkation because you have to take a bus to the terminal from the ship. So even if you wanted to carry yours off, you'd still have to wait for the bus to be full.

I don't recall immigration being an issue. We booked an independent tour and we were on time for meeting him.

We did an evening walking tour with Legends of Puerto Rico. I think it started about 6:00. I believe the forts close at 4 or 5 so you probably can't do them. The walking tour was great though. I think they have other tours...a food tour maybe. This was a few years ago, but Debbie is still getting good reviews. I don't remember what it cost. It wasn't too expensive though and we thought it was well worth it.

We don’t like having to climb over someone who chooses to sit on a aisle when the rest of the row is empty, but is there choice they have to take the rough with the smooth if we stand on their toes so be it!!

Seriously??? So if someone needs to sit on the aisle because, let's say, they have anxiety or claustrophobia or whatever, and need to feel that they aren't trapped, you will just march in late and trod on people's toes????????

That's not very nice.

I think it would depend on where you are cruising to...how port intensive is it? Celebrity doesn't have wave pools and slides and stuff. They have a couple of regular pools and hot tubs. There is a ping pong table. There used to be a basketball court on the top deck but I don't know if that's still there with all the renovations.

People seem to dress fairly nicely for dinner most nights, with a bit of extra effort for evening chic. It is no problem to order as much of anything as you want. Sometimes DH and I just go in order a bunch of appetizers and salad for dinner. If it's a problem for anyone the crew will certainly never show it.

We also enjoy the entertainment. The shows are at 7:00 and 9:00 so not too late. There are a couple of Broadway style shows during the week, sometimes a magician or comedian or a solo singer.

I think your kids would be okay with the dinners and evening entertainment. If there are only a few sea days they could probably amuse themselves by the pool or with some of the other activities around the ship. If you choose an itinerary with a lot of sea days then you might want to go to a ship that has rock climbing walls and such.

We really enjoyed the Chief's Luau. There were activities beforehand for adults and kids. The drinks were good. The food was good. The entertainment was excellent. It was also pretty intimate. I would guess there were maybe 150 people there? The Chief personally thanked everyone as they were leaving. We felt like we had been at an excellent family party. So much fun.

We have one ship excursion booked. With Elite status can we get priority tendering even if it's not a ship excursion? Thank you all for your wisdom! SO excited for our next trip!

Yes, you will get priority tendering. You will receive information on the ship about where to go. Usually you meet the Captain's Club hostess (on my recent cruises it was near the theatre but they will tell you) and she will have you escorted to the tender. Sometimes she will have you wait until there is a small group - maybe 4 or 6 - but it will still be faster than waiting in line.

After our first cruise people asked me about the experience. I said "I met the nicest, kindest, classiest bunch of people you'd ever want to meet.....unfortunately I cannot say the same about my fellow passengers." We've always enjoyed the crew the most.

We still cruise (it's only been 5 years - we're not burned out yet :) ) and for the most part our fellow pax are okay. There was one guy who got very shovy in the security line at the end of a port day and when my husband asked him to be careful about our bags because we had breakables he screamed into my husband's face to shut up or something. So I hollered as well and asked him if he wanted to get violent because his azz would be kicked off the ship in a minute. The crew asked if we wanted them to do something about it. The man said sorry (but not sorry) and we said to leave it. Fortunately we didn't see him again. You hope people will be on their best behaviour...maybe that was his best behaviour?

Yes, food is subjective, but when we were on Princess the only thing I enjoyed was the fettucini alfredo (and I never waste my time eating pasta on cruises). Hopefully it's not always like that, but on that cruise it was. I've been happy with Celebrity's food in the MDR 90% of the time. There is the occasional miss, of course, as there is with my local restaurants as well.

OP didn't say they didn't like the itinerary.

I would recommend looking at Fodors Greek Islands and cruises book. Or a similar book about cruises. It will set out the various lines, sizes of ships, ship experience, culture, dress codes, etc. and also describe what is in each port. This way you can decide for yourself what type of experience you want and you will know which ports are important to you.

People on this site are happy to give advice, but you are likely to get as many opinions of "the best" as there are people on this site.

I'm much more interested in my interactions with the bar staff:D That said, I suspect for some cruisers interacting with senior officers makes them feel special. Nothing wrong with that - different strokes...

LOL Agreed. I'm much more interested in the people who directly impact my enjoyment - the cruise director, the bands, the DJ, our favourite waiter if we are back on "his" ship, etc. But we don't see postings about the waitstaff or Sven in the engine room.

Infinity all the way. She's my favourite ship. Older, and smaller, but still lovely. The Celebrity crew is awesome, whichever you choose. I would take 5 days over 3 as well. More time to enjoy. The Equinox is bigger and newer. I've only been on her sister ship, the Eclipse. It was nice, but I still love the Infinity. I've also only been on one Princess cruise. It was my first, last, only. Actually, if it had been my first ever cruise I would probably not have tried cruising again. I'm sure you will enjoy Celebrity.

Even with ***** "knowing" where you are and if you watched the show, there are several alternatives. One is to simply leave the ***** in the cabin while you wander around the ship sans *****. Another alternative is that you are in fact in the cabin while the presentation is on the TV but asleep due to the arduous travel to the ship the 24 hours prior.

 

I do believe the muster drill is required by international maritime law but wonder sometimes about it these days with a video presentation in inside venue.

Have you guys never seen a disaster movie?? Bad things always happen to the ones who don't pay attention to the emergency exit procedures. :D

Precisely: over the course of just three months the captain of a five thousand passenger ship sailing weekly will have “enjoyed” the company of close to 70,000 “guests” -how involved will he want to get with them?

Hahaha...wow. If some of you are as unpleasant in person as you seem to be here, then I'm not surprised the crew doesn't want to be bothered by/with you.

Have you never encountered someone...on a plane, the next table on a ship, standing in line at the grocery store....that you strike up a conversation with and it is a very enjoyable experience? Sometimes just being pleasant and having a pleasant exchange can make someone's day. I don't ever have to see that person again that I sat next to on the plane, but I have had some very enjoyable and memorable exchanges with plane/restaurant/grocery store strangers.

I don't expect the Captain to be emailing me every week asking how the kids are. Jeez.

I don't know why people on here are being so harsh and judgmental. If you aren't interested in knowing who the officers are then fine. No problem. Someone asked why people DO want to know.

Sometimes you meet people that you really like and want to meet them again. Or maybe you don't personally meet them, but enjoy their sense of humour or the type of service they provide and hope to enjoy it again on a future cruise. Maybe they know that a particular chef is great at making sugar free cakes and they want to sail with him again.

Our cruise director for our Antarctica cruise was great. We had 9 sea days and he kept things going all the time. There was always some kind of activity. He was also very funny. We won't stalk him and follow him on every cruise he goes on, but if I hear that he will be on another one we book, then I will know that we are in for an extra good time. There have also been a couple of duds and if they are going to be on one of my cruises, I will know to bring extra books, etc. to amuse myself. My husband also likes to know who the DJs are. He is often the last one to leave the dance floor at night and becomes friendly with the DJs. Some are better than others. He enjoys dancing. So he is interested to know who is going to be on an upcoming cruise. Does it destroy our lives and future happiness if we don't know who these people are? No. Do we judge people for wanting to know who the officers are? No.

The crew won't be able to spend old £1 coins. They went out of circulation last year, to be replaced by a new 12 sided version.

Gah! Thanks. I should familiarize myself with the money before I go. Last time I think I gave the barista a 20 pound note for two coffees. :) I'm sure she enjoys tourists doing that to her first thing in the morning. ;p

I believe the OP wanted to know why people cared about this information. Why are so many coming on here and saying why they are not interested? By the way, it's "couldn't" care less. If you "could" care less then that means you care somewhat. There is still room for less caring. I assume most people on here couldn't care less. I assume they are commenting in order to get their post counts up.

The forts. Old San Juan is very walkable and you can probably do both forts in one day if you were interested. I've only been inside San Cristobel, but we walked to El Morro. There is a huge green space out front where people picnic, fly kites and kids can run around. I'm not much interested in forts, but I found San Cristobel interesting and the kids might think the forts are cool.

The person is Canadian, unlikely to have coins !

?? ? Actually, in Canada we have $1 and $2 coins. But I wouldn't give these to the crew as they would definitely need to exchange them somewhere. I think we still have a pound coin or two bobbing about from our last trip to GB. The banks don't seem to want them back. :)

Thanks for your responses. We do have US $1s for the bar, etc., but at the end of the cruise we pass out larger amounts to special people so 5s or 10s in Euros or GBP wouldn't be an issue. I know the crew sometimes doesn't want random currency that they have to exchange somewhere, but I figured Euros are probably safe. Thanks for answering.

Excuse me....may I hijack this thread for a moment with my own question?

We are going on a cruise next month where our main currency will be Euros, with some GBP and some USD for the ship. We are a bit light in USD but the ship is the only place we will need them, so I don't know if we need to get more. I think it's probably okay to do extra tipping with Euros (because cash is cash, right?) but is there any reason why this would cause undue hardship to any crew member that receives Euros instead of dollars?

Thanks for letting me interrupt.

We enjoyed our one day in Seattle, but we've been to Vancouver 3 times and we always find something different to do. I vote for Vancouver! :)

I agree with the poster above. I've used Shorexcursions group a couple of times before. They'll pack you into vehicles like sardines. One time the guide was great but the other time the guide was terrible. I won't use them again because I have no desire to sit in the laps of total strangers on long bus rides.

I have the adratic and greek isles on my list to consider (leaving the 27th and 28th). They do have good port times, but I know little of the line. Is one of the ships a nicer one?

It depends on what you are looking for. I love the Celebrity experience and don't worry too much about the ship. Currently there are two classes of ships - the M (Millenium) and S (Solstice) class. The M class ships are smaller and, I think, older. I have only been on the Summit and the Infinity, but I've been on Infinity at least 5 times. It's my favourite ship.

The S class ships are larger and newer, although I think some of the cabins on the M class are bigger. I've only been on the Eclipse, although we are going on the Silhouette next month. There are no rock climbing walls, or slides or anything like that.

Celebrity is also mostly non-smoking, if that matters to you. There are some spaces outside, but there is no smoking anywhere inside or on balconies.

Did you look at Celebrity? They have a Greek Isles cruise that goes round trip from Venice next July. There is a stop in Athens and in Croatia. We like Celebrity because it's not rowdy, the crew is lovely, and they tend to have good port times. We also enjoy the food and the lack of announcements during the day. They also have a bit of night life if you want to go dancing later or just listen to music in various venues. We've met many honeymooners on our cruises.

It's a different relationship than a one-off, land-based restaurant, so yes, I would introduce myself. Especially if I were seeing the same waiters every night. We do select dining, but because my husband is celiac, we try to stay with the same waitstaff. It's lovely when they greet you with "Good evening Miss [first name] and Mr. [first name]. Did you enjoy your day?" But we don't mind getting a little friendly with the crew. Some people like to keep them at a distance, and that's fine too, I guess.