montgomeryfamily

There is an event/travel coordinator on Bermuda whom I have used for booking special excursions on Bermuda.  He and his company also plan weddings and receptions and I know of one couple who has used them for both and one couple who just did a reception through them.  They have also planned a wedding vow renewal and an anniversary reception for another couple who are friends of mine.  Everyone I know who has used them was pleased with their work.  (and we were pleased with the excursions they planned).  They work with you re your budget and present various options.  I don't know if it is permitted to post their name, but if you email me at kacruiser@sbcglobal.net, I'll give you their contact information and their website information.

On 12/6/2018 at 12:26 PM, Hitchens97 said:

Even $600 seems high. I got a full size from Avis (Anch Airport pick up/return) for $285 for 6 days (I expect a week is not much more if not the same) last week of June using my company's discount (which I'm allowed to do for personal). Plenty of discount codes available if you look.

 

 I did try doing a one way drop to Whittier. I was willing to pay the drop fee which was $100 or $150, but interestingly not only was there a drop fee, but the rate went massively up (which I think is a bit bogus), adding $500 on top, so we are just doing the train instead from Anch to Whittier.

I've tried different discount codes for Avis Alaska, including AAA, AARP, and the discount code given to my company by Avis.  None of them worked and I was told by Avis Alaska employees that the Avis Alaska  company didn't give the  same discounts as Avis does for the rest of the country.  I found it interesting that apparently Costco has a discount rate, but there is no Costco in our region of the country.  Can you tell me what other discount codes you found that worked?

Lois, if you plan to go to the Museum the morning of your cruise, I just suggest you keep in mind two things.  First, the Museum could take up all day, so you will need to keep your short time limit in mind and go through the museum accordingly.  Secondly, we found (as have many others) the Museum to be quite an emotional experience, although if you go through it as quickly as you plan, perhaps it won't be as emotional.  But keep in mind the potential emotional draining if you are going the morning of your cruise. 

We went to the Memorial (garden) on a separate day first, and we didn't find it had the emotional impact of the museum.  Plus you can easily go through that in an hour or so.  So you might consider just going to that the morning of your cruise.

The "choo choo train trolley" is not wheelchair accessible.  You have to get out of any wheelchair and take a step onto the train trolley to your seat.    If you can walk, the wheelchair can be folded and put on the train, but for those wheelchair bound, it is not an option.

I always asked them to make it with milk at the IC.  Several times I saw them putting in some water and when I reminded them I wanted it with milk, they all stated they used a little water to blend it together to make it smooth and then added the hot milk.   And when I observed closer, this is what I always observed them doing.  They used the powder which was used for the flavored coffee drinks, but there was also hershey's syrup if you wanted them to use that.  I don't think it would be as rich as the powder.  I never saw them use the instant packages.

I have asked for hot chocolate at a couple of the bars which claimed to have it available, but it was always made from the instant pkgs.

We have cruised Celebrity for several years, the last time being the last week in August this year on the Summit.  We have our own wheelchair.  But each year we have seen them loan the wheelchairs to people who used them through the week and were even allowed to take them into port.  The wheelchairs have the word "Celebrity" enblazened on the back, so are very easy to spot.  In fact, this year, one of the persons in the wheelchair accessible cabin next to ours used one of these all week.  I have been told there is a limited number to loan to people--the remainder are used by the medical center and guest relations for emergencies, medical needs, and other ship purposes.  So Celebrity does in fact loan a limited number of wheelchairs.

I suggest that you contact Celebrity Special Needs and see if they can reserve one for you in advance.  If not, you may be able to get one of the ship if the limited number they have for that purpose have not been loaned out.  If you want to be absolutely certain to get one and Celebrity Special Needs won't let you reserve one, then you would need to bring your own.  I think it would be informative if you were to post your response from Celebrity Special Needs in case this issue comes up again.  I do know there are some available onboard, but I don't know if it can be reserved in advance.

Celebrity does loan a limited number of wheelchairs for passenger use, including at ports, but if you use it to push your mom off the ship, there is no where for Celebrity personnel to keep it where you leave the Celebrity area and walk  to the entrance of the port in many cases.  They might possibility keep it for you in the area where you get off the ship, but I think you would have to ask the security office manning the disembarkation area.  I wouldn't chance just leaving it because it probably won't be there when you come back.

So you have the choice of leaving it on the ship or taking it with you while you are in port.

We are in the same situation as you, Coral.  I don't have any expectation of meeting the new milestone.  We have been cruising with Princess since 1988 and have never done any cruise shorter than 7 days except for a one day cruise which we used as a sort of back to back transportation from Seattle to Vancouver to board another Princess ship doing an Alaska one way cruise.  

With the way our milestone-not cruise was handled and getting tired of the same Princess itineraries, cost cutting and disability accommodation issues, we did not take a Princess cruise this year but instead did a land based vacation and a Celebrity cruise to Bermuda (an itinerary Princess no longer offers).  We really enjoyed it as Celebrity actually offers a wheelchair accessible suite (the sky suite) unlike most of the Princess ships and the ship we were on (unlike Princess) had lifts to the higher decks, seating both in the back and in the front in the theatre, a fully accessible atrium area, etc. 

We are back on Princess next year for Alaska (who I think does Alaska better than any of the mainstream cruise lines as long as you are not on a ship with a tender port), but we will continue to look at other options for future vacations.

But Princess uses both cruises or days to measure achievement of elite status (whichever level is met first) and uses cruises only to determine loyalty shipboard credit.  It makes sense to measure most traveled passengers with days because the title of "most traveled" as used by Princess in this context in and of itself seems to be a measurement of time.

Frankly, a milestone measured in days (500 days, 750 days, etc) sounds like a situation where the recognition and rewards are given only on that 500th, 750th, etc day, not for the entire cruise.   Princess treats the entire cruise as a milestone, providing rewards for the entire cruise (dining in Sabatinis for the length of the cruise, for example).  So it actually makes more sense to measure the milestone by cruises.  But I recognize that Princess does offer some longer cruises and so it only seems fair to treat this like the elite status situation with cruises or days.

Then why did you say that you thought the change to days gave "better recognition"?   Actually there have been several who have posted that they did get both milestones because they had achieved the 5Oth cruise milestone some time before the change and then a few months later after the change, received the milestone 500 day recognition.  However, I agree that this is not necessary and nor, I believe, what was intended by creating milestone cruise rewards/recognition.

I think it could be handled easily by creating levels of milestone cruises.  So level one or 1st milestone is 50 cruises or 500 days, whichever comes first, then level 2 or 2nd milestone is 75 cruises or 750 days , whichever comes first, and so on (following both the original milestone cruise levels and the new milestone day levels).  It is already tracked by computer so it shouldn't be difficult to make this change in tracking (necessary since Princess notifies the Capt Circle Hostess of the upcoming milestone cruise for a particular cruiser rather than the Capt Circle Hostess being required to determined whether there are any milestone cruises on the next upcoming cruise).

How does this give better recognition?  The perks for the milestone cruise have not changed as a result of going from counting cruises to days.  You do not receive a badge or hat or anything to wear publicly proclaiming this is your milestone cruise.  The only place where a passenger on a milestone cruise is publicly recognized is the past passenger party.  However, the three most traveled passengers are still announced at each cruise's past passenger party.  So the milestone cruiser is not the only one recognized.  Do you think it somehow dilutes your recognition to also potentially have someone recognized who has a milestone cruise based on number of cruises?  

I do not object to their adding number of days cruised to determine milestone cruises.  I thought that this was only fair when it was added to the criteria for determination of elite status instead of basing elite status only on number of cruises taken. 

Although there are some longer cruises and some shorter cruises,  the seven day cruise is the length most offered by Princess.  The length of days does not necessarily make the cruise more worthy to be counted.  Many seven day cruises are more expensive than longer day cruises on a per day basis, especially in the lower categories. 

4 hours ago, wallyj said:

For more info there was an older thread on this topic, I believe the switch to number of days instead of cruise credit was done May 2017, so in the previous post mentioning 50th cruise recognized, I would guess it happen before May 2017. I believe the milestone program is also not in writing anywhere and details are only available from your circle host. Unless you are celebrating one on board , my experience has been the circle host is coy about details since they can change at any time.

I boarded the Coral Princess 10 Jun 2017 sailing, I was on my 50th cruise and expecting a milestone celebration.  After nothing the first day, I talked to the Capt Circle Hostess who confirmed this was my 50th cruise but said my name was not forwarded to her as a passenger on a milestone cruise and so she had to talk to the head office as she did not understand why the omission.   It took three days additional days for her to get an answer--they had just changed the milestone cruise criteria to days instead of cruises so I didn't qualify.   That was the first the Capt Circle Hostess had heard of this change.  Needless to say, I was quite disappointed as I had expected the milestone celebration. 

By changing the milestone to days instead of cruises, Princess has in effect changed the number of cruises required (assuming the average 7 day cruise) to 71 and one/half cruises.

Since distilled water is free for those who have the medical need for it due to a CPAP/BPAP machine, I would think it would be available free of charge for your mom's medication.  Have you contacted Special Needs and requested it?

There is a significant lack of curb cuts in the dockyard area. There are a few, but not very many. It is very frustrating to go along a sidewalk only to find no curb cut and having to back up to where you entered on the sidewalk.

Within the last year, there have been a lot of changes to the dockyard area. Barriers have been put in place across many roadways/plazas to keep traffic out of the area and make it safe for pedestrians, who could just walk through them. Unfortunately, we found in many cases the barriers were so close together that our family member's wheelchair also couldn't go through We walked in the roadway much of our exploring the dockyard (with traffic still on some of the streets) and found that when we got to one of these barricades, we would have to turn around and go another way. But we managed.

I don't know about the Frog and Onion, much many of the museums are wheelchair accessible and also most of the shops in the Clocktower Mall. Some other shops were wheelchair accessible, including the glassblowing shop, but others in that area were not.

There are many things to do in the dockyard area which are wheelchair accessible--museums, watch the glass blowers, watch the dolphins, shop, and even a tour or two. There is also a wheelchair accessible glass bottom boat which leaves from the dockyard. So if your party wants to spend the day at the dockyard, there is enough to do.

Because we were do disappointed in the increased lack of wheelchair accessibility in the dockyard area with all of the changes/improvements, I went upstairs and talked with the CFO of the dockyard management company. (Highest level official available that day). He was shocked that their improvements they had made for the cruise tourists had actually had a negative impact on the disabled cruisers--claimed not their intention. I brought up the barriers, lack of curb cuts, and the change to the free trolley train which eliminated the wheelchair accessible car. I suggested they take a someone in a wheelchair around the area and could see everything for themselves. He promised they would take action to increase wheelchair accessibility.

It would also have more impact if others would contact the management company and ask if the changes discussed in our meeting have taken place and express concern about spending time in dockyard with disabled family members.

Also, the Bermuda ferries are wheelchair accessible, so you can go to other towns in Bermuda. (and if transfer to a car is possible, there are blue flag taxis/tours you can take in Bermuda.

There are only two actual trains--one in the early morning and one in the late evening. The rest of the trips are conducted by bus. It may have changed, but some of the buses didn't used to be wheelchair accessible (lift) and I don't know about putting a scooter in the baggage compartment underneath the bus. So be certain and look at the options carefully if you want to use Amtrak.

Quick Shuttle also operates buses which are wheelchair accessible. You have to call Reservations to make the reservation and arrangements. We have taken both the train and the Quick Shuttle. When we could not get the actual train, we booked the Quick Shuttle because it was cheaper than the Amtrak bus service. We really did enjoy the train because it was so scenic. (We took the morning train--don't know how much you can see on the late night train.)

Thanks for posting these. This was very helpful. By any chance do you know on what day and time the Celebrity Connections party was? Usually it is in the morning on the first sea day, but it would be very helpful to know exactly. Thanks.

US airlines do have to let you check medical equipment/supplies at no charge (as well as any such carryons). Some airline companies such as American and Delta have ticket offices which are quite familiar with this and won't give you any trouble. Others like United may give you more trouble if you don't call the special needs assistance line ahead of time and give them notice. Also, the bag or box which carries the medical equipment/supplies cannot have any non-medical items in it. We also carry a drs letter to support our claim of those being medical, but have never had to use it.

Thanks for posting the dailies. :)

Thanks for posting the dailies pages. The schedule of activities/events was the information we really needed for our upcoming cruise.

Thanks very much, Pirates. In case you have any difficulty posting, I'll give you my email (kacruiser@sbcglobal.net) and would appreciate it if you could email them to me.

OP, sounds like you had a great cruise!. Sorry, Pirates, about your last evening--I know an experience like that can taint what may have otherwise been a great cruise. Strongly suggest you contact Celebrity postcruise dept and give them you comments about that experience. Sounds like it was handled inappropriately on several different levels.

By any chance did either you keep copies of the dailies?

Thank you all for your replies. I understand that the Summit doesn't always go out by the Statute of Liberty (especially this year) and that this is greatly influenced by river traffic and weather. But when it does the Statute of Liberty routing, is it better to be on the port or starboard side, if we can't be on the front? We just want to be prepared in the very lucky event that this would happen on our cruise.

Marleycruiser, thank you for all of the information. I have another question-- did the ship make the U turn around the Statute of Liberty when you left the cruise port dock?

Marleycruiser, did you get receive any special invitations such as to the helipad? Were there any special suite parties or events?

Thanks Marleycruiser, for the info. So relieved about the smoking being a non-issue. The butler is of concern to us because the butler handles the room service, which we use several times a cruise. There are other things that the butler handles too. So if we are stuck with the butler on your cruise, we may be having a talk with the suite manager. I'm still hoping her contract runs out before our cruise! :D

Horseshoe Beach has a beach wheelchair but I was hoping since you used Elbow Beach, there would be some accommodation or access for disabled guests. I guess we'll have to stick with Horseshoe Beach.