zeppgirl

7 minutes ago, juanrod said:

We walked off at 730; it depends on what day u come back in to plan for traffic .   Long Beach is easy to get in/ out of sna is a little more busy .  Just depends on if you are disembarking on a weekend vs weekday 

Will be a Monday morning. Though I put it into google maps and it says 18-35 minutes to get from one to the other, leaving 9am on a Monday(;

Can someone give me a ballpark please- if we arrive 7am, when could I reasonably expect to get off the ship?

Looking at flights from Long Beach and Santa Ana:

9:55am/2pm Long Beach or 10:30/1:10 SNA. Thinking the morning ones might be too tight?  

If I go for an afternoon flight, any ideas on what to do in the meantime or where to store my luggage if we want to walk around/tour?

Christmas nowadays is a very secular holiday, especially when it comes to cruise ships. We are Jewish and always cruise over Christmas and we love the decorations and festive songs.  We wouldn’t mind a manger scene but from the perspective of someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, the balance was good. Loved the tree, gingerbread houses, themed activities. 
 

I would suggest that as you mention, if this is important to you, you forgo a cruise and opt for something more religious on Christmas like a service at a church. 

The last day was supposed to be Kitts and Nevis. My son and I were doing the train since we get sea sick, and husband and daughter were going to snorkel. We couldn’t port there due to covid, so again got credited and had another sea day.  We did the Christmas word search contest and saw game shows, which we enjoyed, plus did bingo. I should have done bingo earlier! The family had a blast. I didn’t win anything, but it was a great activity. 
 

shows we saw- the ice skating seasons was enjoyable. The skaters did fall a bit, but the ship was a little rocky so that may have been why. It was a good show. We also saw a guy from South America who did magic and rope work and that was pretty good. I wasn’t so into the acrobat couple performers.

the food was pretty good on the ship. I enjoy fresh fruits and salads and while there were some, a lot of the buffet was filled with meats and sugary desserts (kids loved that). 
 

the sun deck was never full, which was great for finding a spot. I loved that.  
 

Our family made friends with a guy selling alcohol in one of the shops and he did pouring nightly. By the end, he had poured them tons of great alcohol for free. They tipped him.

we did not do any drink packages, we we mainly drink coffee, tea, water and lemonade. It worked out well. We did the drink of the day for $10 each day and the guys would do the buckets of 7 beers (think it was $13?). So we really did not spend that much each day on drinks, even having some beers and a cocktail.  We did bring sangria that we bought as we were checking in at the port in Puerto Rico and did that with our formal dinners.

we left with extra credit in our account due to prepaying tips and refunds for the canceled ports. 

the bad news is that my family tested positive a few days after leaving the cruise so I am pretty sure we got covid from the ship or excursions. But on the ship we always felt safe with protocols.
 

if anyone has any questions about the ship or ports, I am happy to answer them.

I was getting worried about Barbados and hoping we wouldn’t have three sea days in a row, but luckily, we had an excursion and were able to get off. Apparently you could only get off the ship with one and so the line for the shore excursions was long. We had precooked everything.  
 

Getting off the ship was a bit crazy. We had to show our excursion ticket and then a bus brought us to the port. Then we were dumped with huge crowds of people who were from all sorts of ships. Our bus wasn’t ready and no one knew what to do. We probably waited about 45 minutes in a small crowded area. Finally we got on a bus and were brought to a beach.  
 

no complaints but Barbados is a bigger island and this was more city like. Our tour was beach and shopping but there really were not many stores by the beach and the ones there were not tourist shops, but more like grocery stores. Not sure why they would advertise shops but ok…

on the plus side, there was an outdoor bar on the beach which was very reasonably priced. We got smoothies for $4 each and they were great! 
 

we rented boogie boards for the kids to ride the waves, which were pretty good. Unfortunately, my daughter got so many burn rashes from the board that she was in pain, but I think it was worth it to her.

that evening was Christmas Eve so we had a formal dinner in the dining room. No complaints, service great but several people wanted their meat medium well and they all came very bloody. 

After this is where it somewhat goes downhill. All was good, but then we find out that we could not get off in St. Lucia because too many people on the ship had tested positive for covid. I don’t think it was ever at more than 1-2% of passengers and crew, but st Lucia is a smaller island and they lack the facilities to get over run. Unfortunately it would be a sea day. We had planned to go to the pitons and we were so close we were pretty much at the island, but could not dock.  Royal Caribbean refunded the excursions and gave shipboard credit for the day, which at the end of the cruise you don’t use, gets refunded to your credit card. 
 

I spent the day sunbathing and  relaxing. My fear was that things might get worse and we would need to quarantine, so I wanted to make sure I got as much fresh air and sun as I could. I also get seasick so with the original itinerary of one island per day, I could handle that, but was a little seasick at sea. Luckily, we moved slowly and we’re docked at sea for a bit.

St. Maarten next. We had been debating which excursion to do and which beach. Originally we’re going to do the French side, but there was a lot of turmoil there recently so we opted to stay on the Dutch side. Our bus was taking us to a beach for the Kim Sha Beach break. We drove through town and were dropped off at the beach for a few hours as well as given a ticket for lunch.  
 

the beach was pretty nice and water temperature was good. There were beach chairs but you had to pay $5 per umbrella, which we paid.  Almost immediately, vendors came over to offer jewelry, massages, or hair braiding. I wasn’t interested in anything but my nieces did the hair braiding for about $3 a braid. I think she paid $45 for about half her hair. The vending did get old because no matter how many times you said no, people kept coming.  But they were always polite.

the restaurant was ok and food good. My son was excited because grandpa had bargained and gotten a t shirt at the bar/restaurant for $20 with a free beer. My 12 year old was given my $20 and bargained the same thing. Minutes later (alone), he came back with a shirt and beer (which he gave to my brother in law). 
 

we went back to the ship and had fun. Kids were spending evenings in the teen club and meeting new friends. 

Next was St. Croix, which is probably my favorite of the ones we visited because it’s tropical and not so developed. Reminded me a bit of Hawaii.  We did the cultural tour, which started off so strong, but didn’t end great. 
 

the fort was interesting, but then the guide (a resident who has had family on the island for years), pretty much just focused on her personal history. I suppose it overlapped, but it was more about her relatives and where there graves were, where her house was, etc, than anything else. Also the tour started early, but by 11, it was HOT and humid so things were pretty miserable. We were told chickens were sacred there and people avoided hitting them with cars.  
 

so the highlight of the tour according to the kids, was when this guy attempted to “fish” for a chicken and then proceeded to catch it in his backpack, then cycled off. We were like “what just happened”???

St. Thomas was our first stop. We did the Megan’s bay and pirate museum.  Megan’s Bay is great and the weather worked out! Last time we were here, it poured! Pirate’s museum was interesting but very small and quick trip.  
 

We ate at the Windjammer for every meal so far (though my son did his usual of hitting up the promenade cafe for pizza many times). Food was pretty good and there was a lot of seating available. Was told the ship was 70% full. 
 

many shows and events available, but I spent most of my time in the 16+ section enjoying the sun. We did some trivia as well. The tv theme one was hard because my son is young and I didn’t know much of anything before 80s- yet it seemed to not be anything past 90s other than Big Bang theory. 
 

Sunday we took a shuttle to the port. Our time was 2:30 but we had Got there about an hour early. I figured with lines, by the time we got there would be closer, but things moved quickly and we had no problem getting in early. Checks for paperwork were thorough and we were asked to show vaccination cards and tests 4 times total. We were traveling with in laws who were not vaccinated and they did end up spending a few hours getting through. I think they had to test again and faced more hurdles.  
 

we got in and made our way by on our connecting interior promenade room, which I love because it was super cheap and we had plenty of room- plus a view so I didn’t feel like I was in a box. 
 

in case anyone is curious about how I fixed up the room, I brought an over the door shoe rack and magnetic hooks, plus asked for hangers. Our luggage was already there when we arrived, very fast. 
 

we had fun exploring and were supposed to leave at 8, but we’re delayed to closer to 10.

I apologize in advance if I am all over the place!

We are coming from the west coast and there aren’t great flights to San Juan, so we decided to break up our flight by going to Houston first, then spending the night, and then continuing on to San Juan. 4 hours is much better than 12! 
 

We left early Friday and had no issues. Checked into the hotel and completed our video tests. The first one had a learning curve, but after that, it was fast. We just had to wait 15 minutes per person, so we spent more than an hour doing this. I had been worried we would test positive after two years waiting for this cruise, but we were good to go! 
 

the next day we flew to San Juan and met up with the rest of our extended family. San Juan was perfect! Warm weather and a fun farmer’s market festival with music happening. Are monfongo. Masks generally were worn outside except when totally alone. Also restaurants did ask to see vaccination cards. 
 

Thank you for posting!  We'll be on the explorer in 2 weeks!  

Was going to ask the same thing here. Any wine tasting rooms or wineries in San Juan?  Would love to taste before buying.

Traveling with a few other people and we were going back and forth on which excursion to book in St. Maarten. We finally decided on Orient Beach and my in-laws booked it, but I was having tech issues and it wouldn't go through. RC was closed so would have to call back today. Right after that, I saw a post here mentioning the social unrest/protests/road closures on the french side of the island, and noticed that's where Orient Beach is. The other beach excursions we were looking at appear to be on the Dutch side. Our cruise leaves in one month. 

Do you think it's safe/worth it to book this excursion?  Would hate to book and then have RC cancel due to safety concerns in a month. Or should we just book another beach to avoid the issue (and see if the in-laws can change their reservation)?

I know a lot can happen in a month- just wanted insight from past experiences in case anyone has encountered something similar. 

20 minutes ago, Coralc said:

That would be Maho beach and the Sunset Beach bar. Great fun! 

Which one is Maho beach?(: 

Most of these excursions look so similar- which would you recommend?

Kim Sha Beach

Orient Beach

Caribbean Beach Escape (El Zafiro Hotel)

We have only cruised on NCL and RCI. Started with NCL and loved it- no complaints, you can get a lot with your money and the people are perfect for us.  But then we did RCI after seeing some of the larger ships and wanting to try those....and we love it even more than NCL!  I would still cruise on NCL depending on which cruise line has a better itinerary and look at pricing, but I do really like RCI better. 

We noticed that the food was better and I like the ships better. People are good with both. But I do like to eat, so food is big for me. Our NCL cruise got canceled and now we have two booked with RCI.  

It is impossible to know how things will be. I'd be too stressed thinking about it and would either do the later flight, or would stay another day and fly out early the next day. Guess it depends on how adventurous you are and what the backup plan is.

4 minutes ago, Don'tNeedAName said:

@zeppgirl maybe the "old" background image for the page is saved in your cache and not properly reloading. You can try either delete your browser history, or just when you are on that page hit "Shift + F5" to do a forced reload of the entire page. See if that works.

Thank you, that worked!  Was getting worried!

3 minutes ago, molly361 said:

From their website @zeppgirl

 

So odd!!!  Here is what I see.  So confused...

I am confused. I saw your post yesterday and was excited because we were going to book a trip in Dec. 22. I did just call and booked it and the man confirmed I would get double points, but then when I went to the website, it now says sailings through September 22. My sailing is December.  Really hoping I can get those double points, as we are getting a suite and it would add up. 

33 minutes ago, whitbob said:

Hi Zeppgirl,

 

First, I agree with others, Med Cruises can be very port intensive, leaving you with less time on the ship.  You may not get the same use out of the retreat benefits as a trip with several sea days, etc... In deciding between the classes we have ended up with AQ on 8 Celebrity cruises.  We had never been on a large ship before Celebrity/Silhouette, and after reading about BLU on CC,  we booked and really enjoy the service levels in BLU.   You will see allot of information on the pros and cons of BLU.   Yes many of the tables for 2 are close, but they are/can be close in the MDR.  The Service in BLU has been consistently very good, but the few times we have gone to the MDR, the service can be drawn out, or harder to customize (no sauce/different vegetables), so the length of the meal can be longer than needed.  Our experience has been that in the MDR you are served with the rest of the 4 - 5 tables in your row.  For example, if you skip a course, you may be waiting for the other tables to finish their salads before entrees are served.  

 

As for pricing, as you are seeing it is complicated.  We use a TA, who handles the interactions with Celebrity, but we typically follow the sales and do (numerous) Mock bookings to determine cost of Retreat, AQ, etc... so we usually know what the price to match is, when we call him for the booking.   He is better at OBC, additional benefits or discounts that we have missed.  Also it was priceless to have him dealing with the refunds and rebookings for last year.

 

You mentioned Italy in the summer.  We did the Rome roundtrip to Greece in August on the Reflection.  We also lived in California, and were NOT used to humidity at the time.  It was oppressively HOT.  While touring Rome, some of the local type businesses were closed for the month.  Once we got on the ship we realized that they were all on Cruises.  It was totally full, with 750 children onboard,  and many many large parties traveling together, which is out of the ordinary for Celebrity.  It is the only time we have had to wait to be seated for dinner, and the specialty restaurants were busy, so you ended up eating early or late.   The outside pool was a madhouse, and long waits for drinks at the bars.   Loud large tables of people yelling to talk in the dining rooms.   That said, it was the only Celebrity experience where we felt like the ship was crowded.   If we wanted to repeat Italy/Greece in August, we would probably book a suite or pick a smaller boat. 

 

Good luck with planning and Happy Belated Anniversary.

 

Thank you, you give really good information here and it's hugely appreciated! I think we might go the aqua class route. Our cruise that got canceled was NCL haven spa suite.  We love good food and ideally would make use of the spa, at least a few times. Other than that, I'm pretty much ok traveling with any balcony room. My husband, on the other hand, likes to be pampered and is willing to pay more for not having to wait in lines and some extra perks. Don't get me wrong- I enjoy all of that too, but he sometimes gets stressed out with traveling, so the idea is to make it as stress-free as possible.  I guess ultimately I will have to compare the pricing and see realistically how much things are worth if I were to put a price on them. We could get a cheaper room and pay the difference to eat a la carte at fancier restaurants, but don't think we would have the option for early boarding by paying.

Do you usually get extras with your TA that the site doesn't give?  I do a lot of research myself and usually go through (yes, the big warehouse store that can't be mentioned) to get credit, but other than that haven't gotten freebies. I did once go to AAA to use their travel agent service, but they were only able to get me the same as I had found online myself.

You make a great point about Italy being closed and the heat. I will have to see when people seem to take their vacations. I believe it's more July, right?  I'm a teacher so it would need to be June or July. I was originally thinking end of july/early august would be better so I can do summer school as well as travel, but with the heat and vacations, maybe it would be better to go immediately after school gets out at the end of May. We have traveled to Europe many times (I am from there originally), but usually it's more northern. It would be nice not to have a humid vacation. 

I'm surprised about the kids and the cruise being full. We start back up early August here for school. And I'd love to bring my teen/preteen normally, but celebrity's prices are way more than the royal caribbean we would book normally, so not sure we could swing two more people and still have a fancy trip(: Plus in this case we want a kid-free trip.

13 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

OK, I'll try and help. We only have 1 cruise on X (shorthand for Celebrity) but many on various lines (HAL, Princess, RCI, Oceania). I can't tell if you have cruised before and are new to X or if this is your first cruise but since you have over a hundred posts, I'll assume you have cruised before. My advice, in no special order:

 

Search these boards. Lots of good info and you can go to the Ports of Call threads for info on places you might visit in Italy or Greek islands.

All cruise lines, including X, allow you to search for cruises, by date, destination, # of days, departing port, etc. Give that a try, check for special sales or deals.

Itinerary trumps everything--decide where you want to go, set some priorities then use that as guidance.

As far as cabin type/category (retreat, aqua, etc), here's our approach--we take the category that gives us the best value. That is totally up to you, one person's value is another's waste of money. I will say, we don't usually book the higher levels, we just get a nice balcony, on the aft if we can, and go from there. What is important to us may not matter to you. For example, we do not enjoy the shows on any cruise, so we skip them but we love trivia, so try and play that a lot. All up to what you like. If you book the higher levels (like Aqua, where I think you get a special dining room), that will work if you really enjoy good food.

Know in advance what, if any, perks matter to you. I think X is almost all AI now, so you will get bev package, internet, grats, and maybe OBC. If you don't drink, that will make a difference to you. If you don't use the Internet, same thing. There are still some fares on some cruises that are strictly the cruise, but they seem to be getting harder to find.

If you are a (rhymes with bosco, located outside Seattle) member, you can get great fares. Can't use the name here. I hope this post survives!

If you are uncertain, book the lowest level you can live with and don't worry, just go and enjoy. You will have a great time no matter what choices you make 😃

 

Good luck and keep posting questions to help get the info you need.

 

I appreciate the info!  We have done two cruises so far- one was a penthouse suite on NCL and one was interior Central Park connecting rooms. We realized that when traveling as a family, we like our space and the two rooms have worked out very well for having multiple bathrooms and a place to separate. We'll be booking a cruise on RC again (probably 2 bedroom aquatheater) and if I was to travel with the kids, I would do a suite or two connecting rooms again. This time it's just hubby and me, so we're more flexible.  We are brand new to X though. Always wanted to try. We realize we like RC more than NCL. I will definitely search by port- good idea! I saw one cruise that looked good, but unfortunately one of the ports didn't have great things said about it so I am continuing the search. Might not find one that is 100% perfect either, but I guess now I should base it more on dates as well. Also I totally agree with the rooms.  I responded to someone in this reply as well that my husband is the one that really likes the extras and good service is important to him. I'm not sure how "good" the regular service is. Might be perfectly fine. For me, I do like good food. 

We always get the best internet possible, but we don't drink enough to make the drink package worth it. I did look at RCI but it seemed the itineraries were better on X (plus would be nice to try another affiliated cruise line, especially one I've been wanting to try). Down to get a balcony and am ok with that but being as our canceled trip was super fancy (we went all out with a suite and flying business, etc), not sure if I want to go simple. However, prices are way more on what I'm seeing than we paid, so to get the equivalent would cost a bit). Thanks for the help and insight!

3 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

Most Med cruises are port intensive and the ship is not a major factor.  Pick based on itinerary and price.

 

I always compare similar itineraries for Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, NCL and Princess.  Recently, Royal C seems to always have the lowest price.  Great, especially if  you don't drink like a fish.  Celebrity and NCL mostly require you to book with perks like open bar.

 

Celebrity excels in dining and service as well as ship design.

Royal and NCL excel in entertainment.

 

All are good, just do your research and pick.   I suggest the eastern Med and perhaps the Adriatic for a first cruise (Venice, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Santorini, Athens, Mykonos).

Thank you so much!  That's good to hear. We typically pay by the drink, as the package wouldn't make sense for us. I will see what I can find!(:

We are brand new to Celebrity, but think we will be booking a cruise for next summer for a belated anniversary trip.  We are looking to travel to Europe for 7-10 days and would like somewhere on the Mediterranean, like Italy, Greek islands, etc. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the options and am not finding an easy way to find pricing for each cruise.  

I'm going back and forth between the newer/flashier ships that cost more and some that may have better itineraries but are on older ships and cheaper.

I also can't decide between retreat, aqua class, or just doing a veranda. On some of the cruises, aqua and retreat are too much, but then some are doable. I'm just not sure if it's worth spending more.

Would love any insight anyone is able to give. 

thank you! Just saw your post! I am on a 24 hour courtesy hold for a room I want where the cruise will end right before then so I qualify.  I made the hold on the phone with a RC rep and did give her my crown & anchor number, but she didn't mention the double points. Should I call back and check to see if it's eligible or should it normally be since I am a member and the booking falls in that category?  Would be for a suite, so those points would add up!