wenlyn

Hi

Just booked our first Fred cruise. We sail from Newcastle and as we live in Suffolk feel it will be less stressful if we travel up the day before although I'll have to work so it'll be bed time when we arrive. I've searched the board and not been able to find any suggestions of where might be good/convenient. Don't know what our boarding time is yet so would consider staying a little way out as we will have time to kill in the morning before we can board. Any suggestions of ways to productively use embarkation day morning gratefully received 

Thanks in advance

Wendy

This is all sounding very positive 🙂 Just over 3 weeks to go so getting very excited now. That flash sale wasn't visible in the UK or at least not when I looked but I agree at that price it may well be worth the upgrade.

On 8/13/2023 at 11:17 AM, hcat said:

much easier for some of us to read a paper menu..glad still the norm on X

I'm sailing X for the first time next month so have yet to discover if I have a preference though my thought would be paper. I've found on Cunard I struggle to read the menu (I guess I should get glasses!) my husband often takes a photo so he can enlarge it so he can read it (and he does wear glasses!!) It may be the app will suit us more after all 😂

On 8/10/2023 at 3:01 AM, newfiegirl4 said:

Just an FYI.  The “classic pkg”, at the martini bar you will only have 3 choices of martinis to choose from ( lemon drop not one of them), also they will be in a two ounce glass, not the usual three ounce! Happy cruising!
Catherine 

Thanks for that Catherine. I thought I'd read you couldn't get any martinis on the package so I'm excited to hear there are some I can get albeit smaller versions. I'm happy to stump up the extra to try the lemondrop 

I tend to wait until 60 days before and look for a cruise deal that seems good. We tend to book ordinary balcony cabins. If we wanted a specific itinerary or were planning for a special occasion we would consider an early booking but usually, we just want a break and aren't overly fussy so long as we can afford it. (which is getting harder as everything seems to have gone up but that's life in 2023)

On 7/5/2023 at 8:15 PM, skippyhop said:

Here you go photos of the your cabin over the balcony. There is a crew walkway but the crew will need to be v v tall to see into your cabin.

Thank you so much for taking the time to find & post this! I can certainly live with that

10 minutes ago, Obobru said:

AC noise can happen on any ship and is usually isolated to a room or a part of the ship. We were on Silhouette a few weeks ago on a Baltic cruise out of Southampton and had no issues with noise. 

 

As for tea your room has facilities but it's best to use bottled water and bring your own teabags to get it how you want it. Cafe al Bacio also has tea which is included in your drinks package plus there's tea in the buffet again if the brand isn't to your liking bring some with you, the brand was Bigelow a US brand when we were on as they still had US stocks but I imagine they will start to stock UK brands by now as the US stock runs out. I liked the tea much better than Lipton's which is sometimes in the US and very weak. 

Yes hopefully someone on here may have direct experience of 6242 and will know about that rooms noises.

I lived in the States for a while so I'm familiar with their brands so will take my own to be on the safe side 🙂

Thank you all. It's good to have the kettle question resolved 🙂 The input is helpful. My husband has no interest in finding out about things before hand but will faff & moan if things don't go as he expects (he's actually easygoing, it just doesn't sound like it 😂) So to make my holiday more enjoyable I do all the finding out I can before we set sail and that way I can prepare him or ignore him as I won't be flustered lol. 

Small world Ladylemondrop! I will certainly go & try out your reccomendations 🙂

Skippyhop - we are in 6242. The TA showed me a photo which seemed fine from a looking out pov I just wasn't sure about the other angles. I suppose another thing is are crew likely to walk past at balcony level? 

Another question would be does anyone know if its troubled by ship /air con noise? I found a review that claimed it was so bad they asked to be moved  which probably wouldn't trouble me but He isn't as good as blanking out things he doesn't want to hear as I am 

Thanks for the help ful replies 

Hi

Just booked a med cruise on Silhouette. It will be our first time with Celebrity we've done several TA on Cunard and also cruised with P&O & Ambassador. I'm hoping people here can answer a few little questions and share any insider knowledge that could make our experience the best it can be.

We are in one of the angled obstruceted view balconies on deck 6 (cos all the V2's had gone in less than 48 hours of seeing the deal!) I've seen a photo of the view and I think that will be fine for us as we are used to the sheltered balconies on QM2 My big question regarding this is can people on deck 5 look up at you?  Is there anything else we should know about this type of cabin - I can see from the deck plan its near the lifts.

Are there facilities in the cabin to make hot tea or coffee? Do they have cotton wool ballsl/cotten buds in the bathrooms? 

Our price was AI but I can see that lots of drinks are priced just over the inclusive price limit (classic) though I think it'll probably just pay the difference rather than upgrade as the price difference is unlikely to exceed the upgrade cost. Unless anyone thinks that logic is flawed? I'm a little concerned reading reviews about difficulty getting served drinks especially in the MDR. Is that a real problem or just an isolated experience? Or perhaps a post covid hiccup ascruising resumed and now resolved?

Im' excited to get to explore a new ship & experience a new cruise line, I've heard other people say its a good one so I hope we find that. Anything we should look out for, definitely try or seek out like finding Homer on QM2. 🙂

Thanks

Wendy

You drive straight to the car park (past the turning to the ship)  take your luggage to the little lorry and then board the shuttle bus. I would say allow 10-15 minutes. They don't let you finish check in before your time so aim to arrive close to it. hth

On 5/4/2022 at 8:12 PM, rosy6621 said:

 

Hi Wenlyn, for the gala night most people went all out and really dressed up, lots of men wearing suits and some beautiful dresses on show. However not everyone did, so I don't think it matters too much what you wear, but I don't think you need to worry about being overdressed as people definitely make the effort 🙂 

Thanks Rosy that's reassuring. I'm looking forward to being on board and discovering for myself. I really want to like it because it would be great to reduce our port commute from 3+ hours to 1.5. I'm sure I can pack enough to cover all eventualities as there are no flights involved 🙂 

Good to hear that things have been fixed quickly and that people have enjoyed the maiden voyage. I'm looking forward to trying it, though worrying over what to take to wear in the evenings. I know it won't be as dressy as Cunard so trying to gauge what will be suitable and what would look overdressed is a challenge 🙂 I suppose it doesn't matter as long as we're comfortable. I know there will only be 2 gala nights but there appear to be casual and an inbetween designation and I don't know how many of either. Also never been to iceland before so working out clothes for the things we plan on doing there is also a challenge as I understand it can be changeable but with it being summer I'd hate to miss out on summer weather if we get it. I suppose as we'll get ourselves there we can take as much as we want - anyone have any idea how much space there is under the beds to store suitcases? 

So just wondering if anyone has sailed on Ambassador now they have started operations. We're booked for Iceland in early June and I'm wondering what it's like on board. We usually do TA on Cunard so know it will be a bit different  but I'd love to hear how others have found it. TIA

We've done 7 crossings and always self disembarked. We were at Penn station before 8.30 by taxi (for a midday train that was delayed for 6+ hours 😞 ) and have made the 8am megabus ,with a town car transfer, on 34th St  on a few of occasions (worth checking out - it goes to Boston too) though I never dare book it just in case so always have to see if theres space on the day & wait for our booked slot if not. We head south to Baltimore and then friends collect us. We do one way car hire now as it gives us more flexibility at our destination & saves friends ferrying us to airport etc

We did the Canaries and Maderia last December on QM2 via Lisbon & Cadiz The Canaries themselves were warm enough for Tshirt & shorts, Maderia was mid 20's. 🙂  When sailing you were OK sitting/sunbathing if you were out of the wind. 

You will be able to find something in every bar and usually a reasonable selection. I've not drunk champagne in the champagne bar and from memory I think  you may be limited on choice in there at the $12 price point.

I would think you are right. Once you do the online check in and have completed all the other bits they need it allows you to click on print boarding pass (I had no end of problems getting it to size correctly, ended up taking a screenshot & printing that) and E ticket. If they haven't 'gone live' I can only assume its waiting cabin assignment

On 1/5/2022 at 6:50 AM, Matelot70 said:

Not on board on this voyage but presumably you didn't have the welcome parties or the World Club parties?

We were treated to a free glass of fizz on a gala night when we sailed in December - that was in place of the welcome party I believe

On 12/30/2021 at 1:50 AM, aday10 said:

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the current situation is with the late sitting time in the Britannia restaurant?
 

E.g

1. is it still needing to be booked? and if so, can you book a time slot on the first day for your whole cruise? 
2. if you have a linked booking and only want to dine with those passengers, will you be given an allocated table or a different table each night? 
3. if you are able to book a time slot for the whole cruise, do you get the same waiters? 
 

And finally has anyone thought the restaurant has gone down hill with the mew changes? 

We were on QM2 1/12/21 for 12 nights and had second sitting open dining. We managed to get the same table the for 3 nights and managed to dine with a couple we met the 2nd night for the rest of the cruise but it was way more trouble than before and was resulted in embarrassing confusion on one night 😞 We also found it made retrieving your wine more of a performance than when you dine at the same place every night. The staff are still great at remembering when you do return to their zone but we didn't like it as much.

That said the food was really good, although there were fewer nights I felt spoilt for choice. I would say the menu has been modernised and globalised compared to last time we were onboard. 

I would hope that if the change remains longterm someone will come up with an app or a roll call feature that allows you to link up with others who'd be happy to locate others who are interested in creating a set table experience so you can meet up and put that in place rather than having to hope you come across a tableful of them in the first day or so on board

Hi

It was a remarkably similar experience. The TA team were available every morning in the Commodore Club if you had any questions or problems. I had no need to visit them but they helped my mum & her friend switch their seating in the restaurant but you could  have done that direct with the restaurant anyway. If we had wanted to upgrade onboard we would have had to have done so via the charter company (I know that because we  went and asked in the concierge lounge before we set sail as I figured with everyone boarded at low capacity there might be a good deal to be had - we never pursued it because we'd have had to wait until the morning to do anything about it & we'd unpacked and settled in by then) 

There was a welcome letter in addition to the ones from Cunard and an envelope containing your tickets to the gala night shows which you had to present. There were some extra little giveaways on occasion which was a nice touch and a brochure of future offers from the company appeared one night.

I think there may have been more 'new to Cunard' cruisers on board - without the captains and world club parties it's hard to say as that information didn't come up. It really was just very nice to be back on board

20 hours ago, comcox said:

Why the difference between walking around and sitting?  The library is an enclosed space, is it not?  So that someone sitting without a mask could as easily spread the virus as someone walking around.  Doesn't make sense to me.  I guess my trips to the library will be very few and very fast.

You won't like the Carinthia lounge then as the spacing is unchanged between seats and tables. and people spend ages sitting maskless in there.

We did notice on the cabin decks doors were opened often including balcony doors while rooms were cleaned presumably to help with airflow.

The other big change is you can't sit or stand at any bar (which my husband missed as he's tall and too much sitting aggravates his back.

I would say measures are working because there were fewer people coughing on board than you usually notice at the end of a TA so if the 'cunard cough'' isn't spreading nothing else is either 

On 12/13/2021 at 10:27 PM, navybankerteacher said:

How many varieties must be involved for the selection to be considered an “assortment”, rather than, perhaps, a “pairing”?

A fair point 🙂 I  was not clear enough - it was 1 type of cookie containing white chocolate & cranberry in it

Disembarked today - the entire 12 days on QM2 there were only white chocolate chip and cranberry cookies in the buffet (despite a sign saying assorted cookies every day) 😞 

Library is lending. People sitting in there reading do or don't wear masks at their own choice but must wear one to walk around and choose a book or place to sit. There was no regular testing for covid during our 12 days although you could purchase tests if they were required for ports.(I don't know if the staff have regular tests) As others have said masks are worn while upright inside & seated in the theatre (& planetarium) Hand sanitiser is squirted on you if you don't use the dispensers. You are asked to put your mask on if you call out a question or answer in the quizzes but the question masters do remove their masks for the duration of the quiz/presentations otherwise staff are all masked.

I'd be surprised if they changed it from midday because that really is the least impactful place for it. I guess officially time changes happen at night but perhaps it's a decision the Captain makes at sea?