ekp

We are trying a Baggage service.  Hopefully the bags will meet us at our hotel in London.  Hopefully none of our flights are cancelled.  Crazy times at the airports.  Thanks for the input.

Ella

I think we are going to do it.  The one my husband talked to has some tie in with DHL and it is not to pricey. They will pick up at the house and deliver to the hotel. Hopefully no aggravation.

Thanks - I will check them out.

Has anyone  ever used a baggage shipping service?  We are thinking of using one to avoid the Heathrow luggage mess.

Ella

Has anyone used any of the companies that will pick up your luggage and deliver it to your hotel or cruise ship.  In view of the chaos going on at Heathrow Airport we are thinking of shipping our suitcase from home to our hotel in London.  Thanks for any comments.

EKP

Just received an email from Viking that says the tours for the July 15 cruise will not be posted on May 9, as promised.  The excuse is the same - They are still making arrangements.  We will try to be patient.

Ella

Las Vegas

My comment about the ship not being sold out was referring specifically to the July 15 Cruise.  I would think it would apply to earlier cruises too.

Ella

I spoke with someone at Viking last week and the agent told me that the ship will not be at full capacity.  I guess that is a good thing.  The agent did not know the numbers.  I had called to find out about the excursions and he said that Viking was working on them.  I guess it will be revealed eventually.

Ella

If anyone is considering private tours for the July 15 Into the Midnight Sun cruise please let me know.  We are interested in small group tours. Thanks.  We have been to Orkney and Shetland Island on a prior cruise to Iceland.

Ella 

Las Vegas

Happy that I came upon your thread. We began our trip in Tokyo on October 23 and boarded the Millenium in Yokohama on October 26. We received emails announcing that our boarding time would be delayed 2 hours. The ship was going to undergo a deep cleaning because of many cases of intestinal bugs. We boarded around 2 pm in record time. We were very impressed by the speed of embarkation. Our only complaint at that point was the difficulty of obtaining correct information on the need for a China visa for our one day in Shanghai. We would have been happy to stay on the ship as we had been to China. In the end we purchased the $140 visa (totaled about $320 for us). Found out after that we could have skipped it and stayed on the ship. Celebrity customer service gave us a different story everytime we called. The first cruise had a great itinerary. I recommend it - 4 ports in Japan, Okinawa, shanghai and an overnight in Taiwan. We thought the service on the ship was great. We had a cabin in Concierge. When we got to Hong Kong we switched to Aqua Class on 9. The cabin was pretty much the same but the view was restricted by the deck 10 over hang. You could not see the sky. Moving to the cabin was easy. All of our hanging stuff was moved on the hangers. Cruise 2 started and we immediately noticed that the cruisers were different. Our first cruise had a large Asian population. They seemed to disappear on the second cruise.

The new arrivals were perhaps a bit younger and there were more Americans on the second cruise. The service in the dining room declined. The person that did the seating on the first cruise had left - it was the end of her contract. Her replacement was not as good. The service in Blu varied - sometimes it was very good and sometimes not so good. The main dining room was also much warmer. I would attribute this to the much hotter weather. When you are on a cruise for 4 weeks you have to expect that the menu would repeat and it did. We had friends join us on the second cruise so we alternated between the main dining room and Blu. The entertainment was excellent on both cruises. The ship performers were terrific and we didn't mind repeating the shows. Both cruises had performers that were flown in for their shows so here was a lot of variety.

I mentioned the decline in service to a crew member in the spa and was told that she had heard it from several people. She told me that a number of workers were fired at the end of the first cruise. She also said that 9 people were fired before they got to Bangkok. New crew members would join the cruise in Singapore. This explained a lot to me. I think that the service decline in the dining room was due to being short handed.

On the whole, we loved both itineraries and enjoyed the cruise. I don't know if I would sail with Celebrity again - I think that the Millenium is an old ship -I understand it is going into dry dock again for some work. We have booked a cruise on the Constellation in 2016 in Aqua Class. I am not sure if we will do it since it is also an older ship. I am not sure that Aqua Class is worth it on these ships. Blu is nice and the spa perks are nice but if you have a really packed itinerary like we had, you don't really get a chance to sit in the Persian Garden.

As far as sickness - my husband was sick on the first cruise - a very bad sore throat and cough. I had it on the 2nd cruise. Fortunately we came with strong antibiotics and both recovered with out too much discomfort. By the time I got it, it seemed like the whole ship was coughing.

We did some 14 private tours, beginning in Tokyo. If anyone wants recommendations I would recommend all of the companies that we used. We had anywhere from 4 to 11 people and they went off with out a hitch.

This was a truly memorable trip. We actually thought about trying to book on the Singapore to Bali cruise but wanted to get home for Thanksgiving. Guess it was a good thing we didn't.

Ella from Las Vegas

I'd be happy to share the name of the tour group we used. I put together a group of 8 for an overnight to Bangkok. Our guide was wonderful and the trip was the highlight of the cruise in my opinion. It cost about $140 each for the 2 days and you book your own hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Millennium which was very nice.

I would be interested in the name of your tour group for the Bangkok overnight. Please email me at eperla@yahoodotcom (removedot) I will be cruising in November

We are booked on the Millenium Japan to Hong Kong to Singapore departing October 23. We are also from Las Vegas and we are flying Philippine Air Business Class. It isn't a bank breaker. Decided to try it. We have also flown premium economy on BA to Cape Town and found that very satisfactory.

EKP

Las Vegas