The bubble

Hi greydog,

Loved your review so far. Looking forward to part 2 and the review of the ports.

We will be taking this cruise May of '17.

Thanks.

Phyllis

We went on our 11 night Galapagos cruise in December and booked it almost 2.5 years out. Booked it the first day it became available.

It was a trip of a lifetime, and Celebrity takes care of everything for you. Worth every penny.

Hi Photomikey,

Thank you very much for posting the pictures. We are going on the Pacific Coastal cruise with pretty scenery and are disturbed about the canopies blocking our view. We were never told by the Celebrity TA about the obstruction.

Hi Photomikey,

Thank you very much for posting the pictures. We are going on the Pacific Coastal cruise with pretty scenery and are disturbed about the canopies blocking our view. We were never told by the Celebrity TA about the obstruction.

We are booked in cabins 7178 and 7180 on Celebrity Infinity, and were recently informed about an obstructed view from the canopy's on the deck below.

If anyone has stayed in these cabins recently, can you please give me your opinion as to the obstruction.

Thank you.

I'm going to be on a cruise stopping in Monterey in September and have booked an all day tour with others from the ship with Evan:

 

Ag Venture Tours & Consulting Contact Details

Email: evan@agventuretours.com

Address:

285 Hawthorne St

Monterey, California, 93940

Thank you. I have already been in touch with Evan. The cost of his tour is rather expensive. I appreciate your help.

You might want to also check Trip Advisor.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith,

I have been on Trip Advisor already and almost every tour includes either wineries or whale watching.

Thanks for recommending TA. I always use them as well as cruise critic.

Phyllis

We will be in Monterey in May of '17 and I am looking to arrange a private tour of the Pacific Coastline, 17 mile drive, Carmel,for our cruise critic members.

I was hoping to get some recommendations. I have already contacted AG Venture, but can't seem to find any other tour companies that don't include wineries or whale watching.

Thank you.

We actually had $1.00 left of our NR obc and it was credited to our cc after we came home. Maybe under a certain amount they just refund to cc.

Wonderful cruise. This was our 3rd year we were on the Eclipse, Southern Caribbean, and I have to say we had most fun this time. The meals in the main dining room were the best yet.

We like deck 7 or 8, mid ship.

The hump cabins give you a larger balcony.

The company we are using in Manta is called SOS Manta Tours. I think they are just overwhelmed at the moment because they are inundated with requests from cruise ship passengers. I think finally people have realized the ship excursions are ridiculously expensive and so more and more are looking for private tour guides. Also I imagine that Manta is not the busiest port stop so when a ship is in town they probably are not that organized in handling all the requests. I was getting emails from nameless souls and finally I got my "go to"person, the manager, and since then everything has been running smoothly. I think one of their big problems now is that a lot of the tours there include a stop at the Pacoche Forest where there is monkey trail that one walks along. In the last few weeks about fifty monkeys have died and they do not know why so the forest has been closed to the public until the figure out the cause of death. Maybe concerned it is the zika virus. So I have been a bit harsh with my comments, probably because Haku have been bending over backwards to accommodate us from day one. In Arica we are going to do our own thing. I found a review from a passenger and what he did there, and it sounded exactly how we would like to spend our day. Apparently very friendly locals, nice market to visit and geoglyphs just outside of town which are worth taking a cab ride to see. He actually said it was the best port on his cruise, but I don't know what other stops he had. Curaçao no carved in stone arrangements, have heard it's a lot of fun to go on a ride on a tuk tuk which is a like a covered tricycle for a driver and two passengers, and hopefully will take advantage of the beach there and just wander around as this is the first time we will be going there.

Hope this has been helpful.

Best wishes

Susan aka Homers mom

Hi Susan,

Thank you for the information.

Could you please e-mail me at December63@comcast.net as I have a few other questions.

Thanks.

Phyllis

Hi Homers mom,

I did contact Haku tours and received a preliminary e-mail from Alexandria. She is suppose to get back to me with a 2 day tour suggestion. I do know that we want to do Shanty town.

What was the company name in Manta that is giving you the runaround? My friend is trying to find a tour there as well.

Originally we were looking at doing the 3 day trip to Machu Picchu on our own, but it was way too expensive, and it wouldn't give us enough time there.

Would appreciate your review of the tours you booked/ went on in Lima, Manta, and anywhere else you took a private tour.

Thank you.

Phyllis

Thanks once again Keith. I will check them out.

Thanks for your quick response Keith. I am looking to host a tour of perhaps 14 from our cc boards. Do you know if they do larger tours, or is it just limited to small groups?

I will e-mail them as ask.

Also, I don't like to prepay. Can you pay in cash the day of the tour?

Thanks again.

Phyllis

Hi Keith and Homers Mom,

Can you please give me the name of your tour companies you used/are using. We will be there next year and am doing some research now.

Thank you.

Phyllis

Just got off the Eclipse on Sunday and there were many men in jackets, some tux's, but there were plenty of men in long sleeve shirts without a tie, and quite a few in Caribbean shirts as well. Seems like anything was acceptable, but most people were very nicely dressed.

Many men wore dress jeans on the other nights with a nice shirt.

The perks I mentioned are for the Xpedition in the Galapagos Islands.

1 bag of laundry for Elite and bags for Elite +. Which is very nice.

But no such thing as a free massage. But it would be lovely.....:)

The laundry was only for elite plus and higher.

Elite and above were offered the free 30 minute massage. If your traveling companion didn't use their 30 minute massage, then 1 person could get a 60 minute one.

Our friends who were already elite plus got a 10% discount when we booked 2.5 years ago. When we got to elite status, the percentage was decreased to 5%. It was for the cruise portion only.

Didn't know they did away with the 5% as well.

You are entitled to 1 complimentary massage pp as elite or elite plus. Also elite plus received 1 bag of laundry free.

We did a lot of research on waterproof cameras prior to our last cruise. We knew we would be on small boats and snorkeling. We wanted some video and photos while snorkeling in the caribbean, but mostly wanted quality pictures on the boat. We were very pleased with the Olympus TG-4. I still took my dslr, but we used both.

We also recently purchased the Olympus TG-4 and my husband loves it. Will be using it on our Galapagos cruise next week.

We should also be joining you but have to finalize with husband and our adult son. I have put a 24 hold on a cabin through Celebrity.com.

 

P.S. I will finally be on a cruise for my birthday (May 15).

Hope you can join us. Nice to celebrate your birthday while on a cruise. Makes it extra special.

Phyllis

Fantastic now we won't be lonely, I have started a roll call please come and join me,

Janice

Wonderful Janice, will join you shortly.

I see no deals at all when I try to book 2017 cruises. What's up with that? I thought the Big, Better, Best was permanent, but I guess not.

We were told that the promotions are to come out shortly. Of course if the price goes up before the promotion comes out you have to decide if it is worth it to take the promotion.

We have booked Iceland and Ireland 7th May 2017 really looking forward to it,Janice

Hi Janice,

We are 2 couples that also just booked the Iceland and Ireland cruise on May 7, 2017. We are very excited, and are from the U.S. and Canada.

Phyllis