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klflote

Members
  • Posts

    173
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    NY, NY
  • Interests
    Cruising, Cooking, Music
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Celebrity
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Mediterranean

klflote's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. FWIW, here's our experience from last Thursday with 4 ships in port: RCCL Explorer OTS from 7 - 8, Celebrity Infinity from 7 to 10, Costa Pacifica from 8 - 7, Celestyal Olympia from 4 - 9; total passenger load over 11,000). We got in line for the cable car in the morning about 10:15 am and it took 75 minutes. We got in line for the return about 4:45 pm and it took 70 minutes. The line to come back looked particularly discouraging in length, but because it is a narrower line, it moves much faster. So it wasn't as bad as I'd heard (YMMV of course), though not nearly as nice as our trips in earlier years when we were the only ship in port. If Santorini wants to support this many ships, they really do need to upgrade their facilities.
  2. Well, math doesn't work like that. Assuming these numbers, then If the cruise is entirely US passengers, 3.4% of the passengers vape (on average, subject to the other demographic factors you mention). It doesn't matter how much of the US population cruises for this calculation.
  3. Yep. I had to wonder why the CSR needed to keep reminding the caller that the call was being recorded. Hopefully not for the reasons I'm thinking...
  4. I've searched and found lots of posts about buying a carpet in Kusadasi, but none are recent, and none are post-pandemic (if that changed things). Wondering if anyone has any recent experiences, good or bad, to share. We're taking a Celebrity ship tour in the morning so we'll get dropped off at the Celebrity-aligned store, but we can look elsewhere of course. I'm not expecting a huge bargain or anything, but I am buying a new dining room rug, and it would be fun to talk with dinner guests about having bought it in Turkey.
  5. I just came to post the same thing. I had an afternoon of work meetings, and my next RCCL cruise isn't actually until summer 2024, but I've decided that this is a message that cannot be ignored, and so I'll be leaving immediately.
  6. I have read conflicting things about the $20 per day, and whether it is per restaurant per day, or just per day. It seems like it should be per restaurant per day, in case you wanted Johnny Rockets for lunch and Sushi for dinner or something like that. But without saying "per venue", it seems like it really is just once per day, period.
  7. Had a similar experience at Tuscan last night, though at least every dish we were (eventually) served was fantastic. It would have been sad to miss the pappardelle with short ribs and the fig gelato in particular, and that filet was amazing, so in the end I was happy. Definitely a kitchen issue; the wait staff was attentive enough. Hope that staffing issues aren't a general problem; Captain just announced that they're setting a post-COVID record this cruise with 95% capacity. Hope the same is true for the staff levels.
  8. Looking at itinerary next year on Celebrity that starts with an overnight in Ravenna. We did that once when the ship could dock in Venice, and it was amazing having the ship as a base of operations for 2 days (1.5, really, with a 5 pm sailaway). But now it seems...impractical with a 5 hour RT commute. The timing for the reverse itinerary doesn't work for us (when we could just extend at a hotel actually in Venice), and I'm searching for earrings why this itinerary would work but coming up empty... Has anyone done a similar itinerary yet?
  9. I know you said whomever you're working with confirmed that verbally, but is that actually written down and documented anywhere? DH's positive test date was 14 days before our sail date, and we'll have left town 4 days before sail date, and so were planning on getting the COR before we go.
  10. Why is everyone assuming the testing requirement will end (and end quickly)? The article mentioned above (https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/and-just-cdcs-covid-19-program-cruise-ships-has-ended) posits this: ------ Protocols not likely to go away However, this doesn't necessarily mean an end to cruise lines' own COVID-19 protocols. Industry sources said it's unlikely lines will stop their voluntary practices that have been so successful at protecting passengers, crew and communities visited. ------ That seems likely to me. 12 days until boarding and DH is still planning on getting a certificate of recovery, and I'm hoping I'm still negative for 12 days....
  11. We've always flown in a day before the cruise, but for our trip from FLL later this month, we've been debating whether that is enough. But frankly, I don't think just flying an extra day early may help: stories I hear about cancellations are that you are unlikely to be re-booked the next day. So instead, we made a one-way refundable reservation on a different airline for the next day. Best case, the first flight goes and we refund the second flight. Plan B, we get a refund on the canceled flight and take the other flight the next day. If there's a two-day disruption.... As it happens, we had booked a separate return, which is one reason Plan B works here. I'm a big fan of booking separate returns when possible; every now and then, the extra flexibility comes in handy.
  12. On the vain hope that someone from Celebrity is listening: bring back Elite Elegant Tea!
  13. So say you are expected to tip $5 for room service breakfast. And say the cruise is a full 14 days (meaning 13 days of breakfast). The $65 you'd spend is what, 0.001% of the total cruise price? This is an important factor in your decision? Tip whomever brings you breakfast -- in your case, tip the butler extra at the end of the cruise.
  14. Okay, but what about elegant tea for Elite -- has that been reinstated? It wasn't on our trip last summer. I know it's not as fancy as some offerings, but we always look forward to it. And the scones are quite good.
  15. The OP is returning to the US via ship (RT Seattle), not flying to the US from Canada. They needn't test to return to the US. We considered that itinerary for precisely that reason -- we had a European cruise scheduled, and the thing that pushed us over the edge in canceling it was the hassle in getting tested the morning of our return flight home. Ultimately we're doing the Caribbean for the same reason -- RT to Ft. Lauderdale doesn't require a test to return to the US.
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