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ShawninFL

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About Me

  • Location
    Ft. Myers, FL
  • Interests
    Cruising!
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Celebrity and Royal Caribbean
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Santorini and anywhere is Spain

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  1. 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. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. I completely agree. Our RC cruises are always more expensive than Celebrity when you get to the bottom line.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
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