RSLeesburg

My wife, son, and I are all Platinum on RCI, so I know this transfers over to Elite on Celebrity, but when as I do all the cruise planning, I am the only one with an online account.  When I log into RCI, I notice that I have already been assigned a Loyalty Number for Celebrity and Azamara.  I image that my wife and son both have similar numbers assigned, but not sure how to find out what they are - do I just need to call C&A?   Our Celebrity cruise is not until Christmas 2022, so no rush, but when I was filling in their information in the cruise profile, it had a place to enter their loyalty numbers and just wanted to do that while I was thinking about it.  How have others found that? 

3 minutes ago, TiiiSailor said:

Thank you for the information.

Sorry it took me so long to respond.  With cruises shut down, it was too depressing for me to come on here...lol.   But, I hope you enjoy your Alaska cruise.  It was, by far, the best cruise we ever took.  

3 minutes ago, BillB48 said:

 

Actually the Canal cruising and Colon stop are both on day 8 of the itinerary I looked at (Nov. 21 '22), they are located on different panels of the itinerary page that makes the Colon stop appear to be the following day.  The ship will lock back down at some point after the shore excursion passengers have left and sail to Colon with a scheduled arrival of 5PM.

Ah!  I did not notice that.  They are on different panels, so just assumed they were on different days…lol.   Thanks for pointing that out!  

8 hours ago, BillB48 said:

 

While their website doesn't specifically mention just what "Panama Canal Cruising" includes, it is a partial transit.  Their website also doesn't mention that the cruise will utilize the new locks.  Once the ship reaches Gatun Lake you can elect to take a ship's tour or remain on the ship for the short sail to Colon.

 

The stop in Colon is short primarily to pick up the passengers who are on shore excursions as CruiserBruce mentioned with no time for you to take a tour.

Thanks!  I noticed that Panama Canal Cruising is one day, and Colon is next.  Does this mean you go into locks one day, and out the next - with the shore excursion on same day as Colon stop?  
 

Either way, sounds amazing.  I know I want to do tour but my wife and son may not…lol

Yes.  We begin and end in Ft Lauderdale.  I assumed it was partial transit, but it did not specifically say that.  But Colon is next stop so figured I could do tour from there.  

We just booked a PC cruise on Celebrity Edge, and it is definitely not full transit - but if it lists PC cruising, does that mean it will do the partial transit?  

Yes.  The Tauck Family tours and river cruises target families and children.  
 

https://www.tauck.com/tours-and-cruises/family-travel/family-cruises

Nothing wrong with telling them sooner.  We just booked a Christmas 2022 cruise yesterday, and immediately told our son (11).  But as this is their first cruise, I can understand wanting to wait a bit too! 

10 hours ago, Cdresser said:

We were in 15103 in Dec 2019. I loved the location because there is a "secret" side door to the retreat lounge directly across the hall that we were shown the first day. If I wanted a drink or a snack that wasn't already in my room it was 3 steps away. The balcony was completely secluded. I don't know how the other villa balconies are, but no one could see onto our balcony from the ship. 

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did ours. It was magical and the memories have helped sustain me during the past year and a half.

Thanks.  I think we have 15104 booked at the moment.  This will be our first Celebrity cruise.  We had South America booked on Silhouette for Christmas 2020, but it got moved due to Covid and then cancelled when they changed ships.  We were looking for Christmas 2022 cruise, and saw Edge was doing a holiday cruise to PC and Southern Caribbean, so was perfect!  

Just booked one of these for a cruise in 2022.  It looked like all of these were available, and wondered if there were some location that were better than others?  

On 4/26/2021 at 10:40 AM, TiiiSailor said:

We were supposed to have this room this June for a cruise tour, but now bumped to 2022.  I noticed you mentioned in an earlier posting that you received the same points during the land portion of your trip as you did onboard the ship.  Were the rooms you stayed in during the land portion up graded rooms or the same as everyone else?

 

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim

 No.  No upgraded rooms or any real perks on land portion other than the double points.  When you get to ship though, they had someone waiting to escort us on to ship.

Thanks.  I thought I posted there too, but will check.  At the moment, we are holding off anything for this Christmas to see how things open up over the summer.   We have also looked at a few of the Tauck land tours - especially the London/Paris one.  I agree with you - I wanted to just base our itinerary off of theirs, and do it ourselves, but my wife likes the idea of being with a group of other families, as it may give our son a chance to make new friends.  

ah...what a good topic.  

Our first adventure into the world of cruising was when our son was 3.  We took RCI Grandeur out of Baltimore for 6 day to Bermuda.  Our son loved being on the ship, the kids club, the small pool - just about everything.  My wife and I also enjoyed the ease of travel - we drove to port, walked on ship, and just relaxed.  It kicked us off on a new way to travel, and up until Covid, we took one cruise every year thereafter.  After our last Christmas cruise, we knew we needed some new itineraries, and as our son was soon going to age out of the kid's club, we wanted to start to explore other parts of the world.  In 2020, we were supposed to be sailing in South America over Christmas, but that cruise was pushed off a year and then eventually cancelled when Celebrity switched ships on us.  And summer of 2021 we were supposed to be sailing to Norway from Southampton, but we moved that cruise to 2022, as we need to move this summer when we were supposed to be cruising.  Will be so happy once things return to some semblance of normalcy...

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Honestly what will Disney cruise line do if kids need to be vaccinated along with their parents to cruise?  It is a major part of their revenue unlike Celebrity.

This will be interesting to follow - at the moment, families can attend WDW or Universal Studios in Orlando without any vaccine requirement.  We went to Universal in October and we were perfectly safe - no one caught Covid, and are planning to go back in April.  IF the cruise lines are required as terms of starting up again, then they will have no choice - what will be interesting is if they are given some leeway in this regard.  

On 1/16/2021 at 1:10 PM, Rala said:

Tauck has a great reputation.  I have not personally taken a river cruise with them, but family members and friends have.  They all have said how well organized and efficient the Tauck cruises are.  Every detail is taken care of.  You basically just show up and enjoy !  🙂

Thanks.  I know that they have an excellent reputation, but always nice to hear first-hand comments.  

4 hours ago, WesternBroncoCruiser said:

Yes, so from what I remember,  Celebrity rep say that they sell it three ways as an all inclusive: The 10 and 11 Day packages and then a 16 day package that includes Machu Picchu after the cruise.   He said that it really keeps it easy because you fly into Quito and from the moment you land you are in the hands of Celebrity, from your Hotel stay, to the charter flights to Baltra and back, the cruise, then back to Quito or if doing Machu Picchu, off to Peru.   It seemed like it would be the easiest way to do the cruise, especially when in a country where I don't speak the language.  My agent also mentioned that she could add Machu Pichu through another tour supplier she works with for less than what it costs to do it through Celebrity, but it would not be as inclusive an experience.

 

Nice.  We may look for a new TA next year.  We are due to move in June so will look for one in our new state.  My wife wants to do more land-based international travel, so having a good TA will be helpful.  I know there were people adding Machu Pichu onto their South American cruise, but this was not an option for us as it was over Christmas break and the cruise took up most of our son’s vacation.  

9 minutes ago, WesternBroncoCruiser said:

I looked at the chart that she sent us and really the only time where you might not want to go is Dec, it says that the Boobies are mostly fishing and the Albatrosses are not there, but it is my understanding that even in Dec you will see the other wildlife - Flightless Cormorants., Iguanas, Penguins, Tortoises, and sea lions.   This is on my bucket list, so that is why I attended her Zoom presentation, I am maybe hoping to go before 2025.    It was pretty cool because she had the rep from Celebrity on the call and he had actually gone with Celebrity and shared some of his own experiences.   Celebrity has 3 ships, Flora for full luxury, Xpedition - still luxuryios, but not purpose built for Galapagos and they have a catamaran yacht that holds something like 20 people that they said is better as a charter.    

Yes.  I hear you.  My wife went a long time ago, and still ranks it as her most favorite trip ever.  The catamaran is probably too small for us, but have already looked at Xpedition - also, they have suites that hold 3 people.  My son really want to do Antarctica, but that is three times the price, so I think we may hold off on that one until he is a bit older.  

In the presentation you saw, did they talk about the longer land tours?  I noticed online that there is a 10-day or 11-day option that includes a bit of a tour in Quito, but have read where other people have tacked on a trip to Peru.  Just wondered where info on this might be found.  
 

I will keep in mind Dec.  At the moment, we generally cruise in Summer or over Christmas when our son is out of school.  We are doing Norway in July 2022, and may do a family river cruise with Tauck over Christmas 2022, so Galapagos is probably more of a 2023 trip - maybe we will do that over Summer.  

Has anyone taken their kids on one of the Tauck Family River Cruises?  We noticed one that interests us and were curious if anyone has had any experience with these - especially for kids used to the larger cruise ships.  How did they enjoy the smaller ship experience?  

Anthem is sailing out of Southampton the next two summers, and it is a nice mix of elegance and activities for all ages.  We were booked on the 9-day Norwegian cruise in June 2021, but moved it to 2020 as we will be moving next summer and cannot make the cruise.  

We took our son when he was three and potty-trained so he could enjoy the kids club.  He loved cruising and we were taking a cruise-a-year up until Covid shut things down.  Also, we opted to take one of the smaller, older ships and then stepped up to bigger ships as he got older and could enjoy more of the activities.  It worked well for us.  

Oh, I wish I had seen this sooner - we were booked on the Silhouette South American Christmas cruise with our son, who will also be 12 next year.  But when they switched ships, we decided to cancel.  Please come back and tell me how your cruise is!  We may try to go again in 2022 if they have a bigger ship down there!  

12 hours ago, WesternBroncoCruiser said:

The nices most luxurios option is definitely the Flora.  Holds a 100 passengers all suite and custom build for the destination. Easy debarkation via custom yacht tenders vs just a stand zodiac.   It just won an award for best new expedition ship.   Celebrity has pretty good pricing going right now, but it is still expensive.  For the three of you it will probably be at least $30K and not everyone has that kind of budget.   The Celebrity Expedition is a little less expensive.   The nice thing about doing it with Celebrity is that they make it a seamless package with two nights in Quito, Charter flight to Baltra and back.  Do you have a travel agent that you work with?  My travel agent did a Zoom meeting a few months back on Galapagos and I was curious so I attended.   I'd say for a trip like this definitely work with a travel agent.   The Celebrity option is great, but again it is not in everyone's price point.   Silver Sea is another luxury provider and they have an expedition ship for this as well.  My agent mentioned that there were tour providers who did Galapgos in small, not luxury vessels that were a bit more affordable - Nat Geo and Globus were two that she mentioned.    From what I remember in her presentation, she said that really this is a year round destination as the weather is pretty good all year.  She put up a chart with the bird season, and there was about a 9 month period from Spring to Fall (our calendar) where the different birds were active and doing things.   So if you want to see the mating dance of the Blue Footed Boobies, then go during that month, if you wan to see the Albatross hactchlings, then go that month, etc.  

That is excellent to hear regarding the year round season.  And yes, we are aware of the cost.  We have not spoken to a TA yet.  We were less than thrilled with our last one so at this stage are just doing some research on our own.  

On 12/9/2020 at 12:15 PM, clo said:

Are you aware that ships with (I believe it's) more than 500 pax cannot disembark? Just do a drive by. I'd say the first thing to do is make that decision. For some it's not a problem; for us it would have been a deal breaker. We sailed with Hurtigruten a couple of years ago and it was great. When we weren't going ashore we were taken out in zodiac-equivalents and got up close and personal with whale, seals, etc. And I think that's a great time of year. We were there in January and onboard the ship during the day we actually wore shorts 🙂 But we're 'hardy stock.'

None of the ships I am looking at are that big - Flora is 100 passengers, and the others are all smaller.  

My wife and I are looking to take our son (11) to the Galapagos - maybe 2022.  We were originally looking at Flora because we have status on RCI, but as we did more research, we ran across Xpedition/Xplorer and the Lindblad/NG cruises and began to wonder if we should reconsider...  We have Antarctica on our wish list, and noticed that Lindblad/NG has several nice tours there, so maybe branching out would be a good thing - but have heard great things about Celebrity too. Just curious to what others have seen - which ships tend to have more families?  Also, we were thinking about doing this over Christmas break - is that a good time to visit this area?     

On 8/19/2020 at 9:05 AM, simonpjd said:

We have been twice both times Falklands then Sth Georgia then Antarctica. About 23 days out of Ushuaia. We went for a bit of luxury on the Bremen, Hapag Lloyd, and Island Sky, Noble Caledonia. Don’t go with Noble Caledonia. Lovely ship but not ice strengthened enough to go through proper ice. Look for proper ice ships, like Bremen.

lots of 70ish passengers and no problem at all. They know how to get everyone on and off the zodiacs. But it is 100% wet landings so you do need some degree of fitness. Definitely pick a trip with Falklands and S Georgia, for wildlife they are better than Antarctica.

They are the best 2 holidays we have had and that includes 2 to the Arctic and Svalbard.

Go for it.

Any questions just ask.

How are these cruises for children?  We were looking to book one of these with our son - he is 11 now, but will probably be 12 or 13 before we can arrange to go.  He is very interested in traveling Antarctica but we weren't sure if there would be other kids his age on board.