Shenaz

So.... we had to miss our last stop (Oman) this morning due to high winds. Fair enough. We made speedy progress to Abu Dhabi where we were due to dock tomorrow morning. NOT allowed off the ship, but spent a pleasant enough day chilling etc. Tonight at 10.15pm, an announcement was made that ALL passengers were required to have a face to face meeting with immigration THIS EVENING and hand in their passport - which had only just been returned to us.

 

TOTAL CHAOS ensued as the announcement neglected to tell us where to go!!! Eventually, by word of mouth and FINALLY an announcement, we sorted out what to do. Called by deck number, but of course most didn't wait for their deck to be called. HUGE queue to GET OFF (!!!!) the ship and go through immigration to hand in our passports - to add insult to injury, the nice immigration officer greeted everyone with 'Welcome to Abu Dhabi!"

 

Left wondering how we would get them back. About 15 mins ago (at 11pm) a further announcement - our passports would be ready for collection from the Rendez-vous lounge at our convenience from 4am!!!

 

Oh and of course we have to vacate our rooms by 7am in the morning!!!

 

If you are travelling on Celebrity in this part of the world - you have been warned!! More to follow when we get home re the fiasco in Mumbai!!

We were on the cruise before yours and had no problems whatsoever with immigration although the ship collected our passports at embarkation, we got them back after we were in Oman and had to hand them in again on arrival in Abu Dhabi. The face to face immigration process was very smooth and faster than at any American port :cool:. We were also off the ship in no time.

It is about a 15 minute walk from the Dubai Metro Station to the Burj Khalifa entrance for "At the Top" which is located at the LG level of Dubai Mall. The bridge connecting the two is fully enclosed, has moving walkways like at airports, and has a/c. As you enter the mall, you will be on level 2 so it is just a matter of taking the escalators down to the bottom level. If you are going to one of the restaurants, entrance is through the Armani Hotel and probably easiest to take a taxi as it would be a long uphill walk up their driveway to the Armani lobby entrance in BK.

Wow, thank you very much for your quick and detailed reply!

Does anyone know how much time you should plan to get from Dubai Mall metro station to the entrance of Burj Khalifa?

We have booked an Arabian Sea cruise, 9 nights on the Constellation, starting two weeks from today in an Oceanview Cabin for 34 € pppd including port fees and taxes, but no perks, gratuities, OBC or whatsoever.

Thank you for the pictures, we leave for Copenhagen August 22, 2017 for our 15 day TA( Oslo, Kristiansand, Reyjkavik overnight then Akureyri, 5 sea days, halifax sea day then Boston. we will be staying on the Canal at the Bethel.

Same itinerary as ours, minus Ísafjörður. I'm sure you're going to enjoy!

The best is yet to come (Iceland).

Our last stop for this packed day was the Opera, you can walk up the marble roof and enjoy the view over the waterline. There is a lot of construction going on in this area.

It was a very long and interesting day and at the end of that, we were only capable for a yummy dinner at Winderjammer and our beds.

After that, we had a brief look at the ships in the Viking ship museum, it was only a very short stop there.

We spent more time in the Norsk Folkemuseum, the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. This is an open-air museum with more than 150 buildings from different places and times from all over Norway.

We had a picnic lunch while we were waiting for the next metro that got us to Frogner Park, sometimes also named Vigeland Sculpture Park.

The Vigeland installation is the world's largest sculpture park by a single artist. Most of the sculptures (if not all of them?) and structures show naked people.

We took the T-bane up to Holmenkollen ski jumping hill. On the way we had some spectacular views over the fjord and the city.

We arrived at the bakken after a t-bane ride of around 30 minutes and a steep ascend by foot.

The hill is gigantic. People must be crazy to jump down :eek:. The current official record is at 141 m (463 ft). The structure was rebuilt only a few years ago and the new hill is very modern.

We decided not to get up too late to enjoy some of the spectacular Oslofjord views. Got a nice table in the Windjammer Café and enjoyed a relaxed breakfast before docking in Oslo.

We had a very tight schedule that day so we were happy the ship was cleared on time.

Unfortunately it was chilly and very cloudy when we arrived, but like the day before, the skies cleared up during the day.

Oslo City Hall and Akerhus fortress to the right.

On our way to our first "real" stop, we took a (planned) detour through Oslo's main street, Karl Johans gate.

This is Stortinget, Norway's parliament building.

As you can see, the first rays of sunshine were to be seen over the Royal Palace.

Your pictures are beautiful!

 

Sherri:)

Thanks, Sherri!

As time passed by, we took a bus back to the ship and checked in. It was already mid-afternoon, therefore there were no queues. We couldn't have asked for a smoother process.

We grabbed some late lunch, went for muster drill and explored the ship. We were amazed by the Atrium!

For sail-away we found a quiet spot on the helipad.

In the background you can see Storebælt bridge.

Since it began to rain heavily, we didn't spend a huge amount of time on the helipad.

We grabbed some dinner from Windjammer Café and decided to end the day on a relaxed note - even more so as we had a very busy day scheduled the next day in Oslo.

Far in the distance, you could see Serenade of the Seas.

A closer look at the Opera.

After that, we continued our way to our last sightseeing stop for today, Nyhavn.

By the time we arrived there, it was buzzing with people as the weather had become really good.

Our next stop was St. Alban's Church. The church is built from mainly limestone and flintstone.

Next to St. Alban's Church is Gefion Fountain.

We made our way to Amalienborg Palace, with the Opera in the background...

... and Frederik's Church if you take a 180° turn.

We had a peek inside.

We then proceeded on to Kastellet, a well preserved fortress, where we spent quite some time wandering and exploring.

The Monument for Denmark's International Effort since 1948 on the left side, one of the Rows to the right

Guard building at North Gate

Citadel church

Commander's House

Windmill and canon

Outside King's Gate, the weather had improved. As you can see, we enjoyed the sun

Especially since this method of whale hunting has been going on for centuries in the islands and has been protested by environmental groups since at least the 80's. I know some passengers voiced some concern on our cruise last year but they still got off the ship.:D

 

 

Sherri:)

German cruise lines cancel Faroe visits over whale hunt concerns

I wouldn't doubt Royal cancelled Klaksvík for the same reason. Besides, this is also what Captain Tor replied in the Q&A when asked why the Faroes were cancelled. Next year's Serenade TA doesn't stop there either, so it's likely not a scheduling conflict.

Maybe also due to this 2015 law.

At least, this was what was heard on the cruise.

My dad took us to Stuttgart airport in the whee ours of the morning. It is only a short drive from where we live.

We had decided against flying into Copenhagen a day or two earlier as we had been there before (and we didn't like it, but I'll add to that later). We also thought that the risk of missing the ship would be minimal with a one-hour flight very early in the morning. Even if something had gone wrong, we would have had plenty of time to get to the ship!

Check-in and boarding went smoothly, even though my mum and I agreed that we had never seen as many people at that airport before (think summer holidays!). We flew with a tiny SAS Bombardier that only fitted around 70 passengers. We even had to check in our hand luggage (at no additional cost) as the plane was so small!

Our flight was scheduled for 06:00 am, but we had a short delay due to a thunderstorm. Luckily, the thunderstorm made way for an incredibly pretty sunrise!

Despite the short delay, we arrived in Copenhagen on time.

We were out of the airport and at the train station very quickly, where we took the train to Østerport Station. From there we took the bus to Oceankaj where we were greeted by our home for the next 16 nights.

We were at the cruise terminal at 09:30 am already and luckily enough, we could already drop off our luggage.

We then took a bus back to Østerport Station as we wanted to do some sightseeing.

Even though we had been to Copenhagen before very briefly, we had been in an entirely different area.

There was some light drizzle and heavy winds at the port, but it had dried by the time we were back in the city.

Our first stop was the Little Mermaid. People keep saying how little she is. I found her to be the exact size that I had imagined.

Hello fellow cruisers,

I finally decided to put this summer's transatlantic in pictures and words, so here is my first ever cruise review. I will mainly let my photos speak: I don't have professional camera equipment, I just own an okayish compact camera. I plan to update whenever I have the time and I hope I will ever finish this.

Who we are

For this trip, I was accompanied by my mum. My mum, Rosemarie, and I, Stefanie, are Germans, living in the south of the country (so bear with me, my native language is not English!). I'm in my early thirties and my mum is in her early sixties.

This was my fourth cruise and my mum's fifth, my second and her third translatlantic.

We have sailed on Princess and Royal Caribbean before.

The planning

Around February this year, I found the cruise in an ad from a big German discounter. I knew immediately this was the cruise we were going to take, but found the prices too high. After some research, we booked with a German online travel agency who offered the cruise at a price that suited us well and left us more opportunities for individual planning.

During the summer, the cruise fare dropped a lot, so we cancelled and rebooked, and despite the cancellation penalty we saved so much money, it almost paid for all our excursions.

We are low-budget travellers and are in our cabin only to eat, shower and sleep, so we went with an inside cabin. We had a guarantee, 3583. The location was fantastic: very close to the elevators and stairs on a low deck midship. We were next to a crew storage area, but we never heard a sound from there.

The itinerary

Initially, the cruise included a stop in Klaksvík, Faroe Islands, which had been axed due to their doubtful whaling policies - but that port of call had already been cancelled before we booked this cruise.

A couple of weeks before the cruise, the itinerary was revised once again and the port order in Iceland was changed from Ísafjörður - Reykjavík - Akureyri to Reykjavík - Ísafjörður - Akureyri, which was, in fact, the best thing they could do as that gave us two entire days in Reykjavík instead of only 1.5.

The final itinerary looked like this:

(taken from icruise.com)

Day 1: København, Denmark - Depart: 05:00 pm

Day 2: Oslo, Norway - Arrive: 10:00 am - Depart: 07:00 pm

Day 3: Kristiansand, Norway - Arrive: 10:00 am - Depart: 06:00 pm

Day 4: At sea

Day 5: At sea

Day 6: Reykjavík, Iceland - Arrive: 08:00 am

Day 7: Reykjavík, Iceland - Depart: 05:00 pm

Day 8: Ísafjörður, Iceland - Arrive: 08:00 am - Depart: 04:00 pm

Day 9: Akureyri, Iceland - Arrive: 07:00 am - Depart: 05:00 pm

Day 10: At sea

Day 11: At sea

Day 12: At sea

Day 13: At sea

Day 14: At sea

Day 15: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada - Arrive: 08:00 am - Depart: 05:00 pm

Day 16: At sea

Day 17: Boston, Massachusetts, USA - Arrive: 06:00 am

So, for now there have been many words and no photos, but that will change with the next post, I promise!

The general routine of daily activities is roughly the same for the same ship.

But port day & sea day activities could vary substantially on ANY sailing of Constellation or any other ship.

Therefore I need pics of the latest Celebrity Today daily guide for 1 port day & 1 sea day (of ANY recent itinerary in any part of the world), in order to COMPARE the two.

Were the ones in this post not recent enough?

On our TA this summer on the Serenade of the Seas, the cruise director stuff provided us with jigsaw puzzles on an extra table they put in the Schooner Bar. We completed two, for the third one the TA would have had to be a little longer. It probably won't hurt asking the crew.

Sorry to hear that all you do in your cabin is shower, dress and sleep:cool:

And where is your problem with that?

Some people, when they're on a ship, want to explore the ship and the ports, just like when they're in a hotel they don't want to be limited to the hotel complex. Some don't care about staying in their cabin, so I don't see the problem in booking an inside if all someone does in their cabin is shower, dress and sleep. :)

Like I said: to each their own; and there is certainly no need to pity other people's way of spending their money and holidays.

I do congratulate the OP's friend to snagging this great deal! Bon voyage!

To add to what the OP stated: I can confirm a similar experience as I booked a 9-night Arabian nights cruise quite close to sail date only very recently (a little more than 30 days out though) for just 299 € pp including taxes. We had been monitoring this cruise before and the price dropped from almost double the costs. No booking early as soon as the itineraries came out, and we booked with a travel agent who offered the cruise at a better price than Celebrity. Air fare was only 378 € by the way. Oh and it is not an inside :cool:.

Our last TA we cancelled and rebooked due to a price drop (German T&Cs don't honour price drops by a mere call and asking for it) so that even with the cancellation penalty we saved an incredible amount of money that paid for almost all of our shore excursions.

Tl;dr, you cannot generally say that prices always increase, TAs are never allowed to offer the cruise at a better rate than the line directly, last minute air fare is always more expensive.

Well where's the need to book a suite when all you do in the cabin is shower, dress and sleep.

To each their own! :)

Following up on this for everyone who needs to know: there is a baggage drop-off at the right side of the cruise terminal. We were able to leave our luggage there already very early in the morning. I think it must have been around nine o'clock and it was absolutely no issue.

~2600 $ per person for our upcoming 16nt TA, everything included :cool:.

That might not be a bad idea, since we're in Oslo for 13 hours and we'd have a chance to see more of the things available. Do you know if we would catch the ferry right there at the cruise ship port? Thanks so much for the idea! We'd be giving up our guided boat tour around the Oslofjord, but I think we'd make it up with the Folkemuseet and the other museums, not to mention the things we can get to see that are in downtown Oslo. :)

If you don’t want to pass on the harbor cruise, you could also book a tour independently: you could have a look at the Oslo Pass homepage: the tour is not included in the Oslo Pass, but you get a discount with the pass.

And if you spend 13 hours in Oslo (awesome!), don’t miss out on the Holmenkollen ski jump! It's impressive and gives incredible views over the city and the fjord.

It’s a little outside the city and can be reached easily by public transportation as well.