Turtles06

@kflietst Do you mind sharing the name/website/contact info for this guide? We may be interested in doing the reverse at the end of a transatlantic cruise arriving in Southampton. Thank you!

As others have noted, you have a chock full itinerary, even without the British Museum. I'm not trying to add to it, I just wanted to suggest something you may not have considered, perhaps in lieu of something else (maybe Buckingham Palace), and that's a guided tour of the Palace of Westminster (aka the Houses of Parliament). We did this in 2018; the tour is about 90 minutes long, and it was one of the best tours we've ever taken, anywhere. The Palace has incredibly opulent rooms, and you walk through many of them, learning about history and about what you are seeing. And then, a major highlight, we visited the Chamber of the House of Commons. We got to stand in the rows of seats (only elected Members may sit in those seats, as we learned) while the guide discusses what happens in the Chamber, who sits where, the history of the Chamber, etc. It was a "pinch me" moment to actually be inside such an iconic place that I'd only seen on TV. (And I say that as an American.) Just throwing that out there (especially since your hotel is so convenient to Parliament). https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/

On another thread you'd started, I posted about doing exactly that (so perhaps it was me 🙂). Arrived at the Abbey at 9:30, immediately went to the desk to book the Verger Tour for a time after our visit to the Diamond Jubilee Galleries (per our pre-booked timed ticket). That was all fabulous and took up the entire morning. Walked toward the Churchill War Rooms (had a 3pm booking) and had lunch at some pub along the way. Might have been able to make an earlier time for the War Rooms but we of course didn't know in advance exactly how long we would spend in the Abbey and definitely did not want to feel rushed for time. And I totally agree with @markeb that you can (and we did) spend hours in the Churchill War Rooms. It depends on your interest in the subjects. I found the entire place fascinating and probably stopped to read just about every exhibit sign.

Very glad you were able to see Keukenhof just before they closed for the season. Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos.

Thanks so much for that helpful information!

Are you in an official group all booked together as a group (e.g. NCL has a group number for you), or an unofficial group of 13 folks traveling together. I’m asking because I may be in the latter situation and am wondering if “group dining” will handle such “groups.” Also, do you have a phone number for group dining? Thanks and enjoy your cruise.

I know you said you paid extra for the cancellable reservations you booked yourself, but you also mentioned that you have gotten good seats on those flights. Do you really want to risk having Celebrity in the middle of all this by booking through them and possibly not getting the seats that are important to you? Only you can answer that of course. I hope whatever you choose works out for you.

For those of us, like the OP, who enjoy the "connection" to the water that comes from being on an outside, forward-facing deck, it's a shame that Celebrity's new builds (the E Class ships) have restricted that unique space to suite guests (and that Celebrity is doing as much possible on the S and M classes to do the same). It's one thing to have a suites-only restaurant and interior lounge. These are not unique spaces on a ship, everyone gets to eat somewhere and hang out in other places. That's my personal feeling in terms of one of the things that I find special about being on a cruise ship -- seeing the ocean from an outside deck, seeing where the ship is going, seeing the ship pull into port, just hanging out on that deck.

The parking at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal is not "part of NCL." It's the Cruise Terminal parking. A very good place for information about parking at the MCT is over in the East Coast Departures forum: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/317-east-coast-departures/

Actually, as you may find in your research, Greenland has more ice, and Iceland has more green. 😊 Lots of info over in the Iceland and Greenland ports of call forum.

I've seen it too. It's disgusting.

The guests will get the price drop (prior to final payment)

I was talking about folks who hadn't booked yet/put down a deposit. Not everyone is booking at the same time.

So as it turns out, this is a group booking (as I noted in an earlier comment) and the deal with NCL is that they have given the group "price protection" on the cabin categories being held by the TA (that is, if the price goes up after the group was created, guests can still book those cabins at the original price). One part of that deal is that all the FAS offers will be included if guests want them, but they can't decline separate parts of FAS (e.g., the Beverage Package). Many thanks again to those of you who offered your information and experience.

Thanks, I think so too.