KeepOnCruisingJG

@euro cruiserrome2rio.com - once in Ravenna we can get a taxi; shouldn't be too expensive for an 8 mile journey... Port shuttle bus would make sense since cruises are no longer allowed in/out of Venice! Celebrity offers airport transfer but out of Venice 😞

We are booked on Celebrity Constellation in August, sailing r/t from Ravenna; we booked flights to/from Bologna because it's closer than Venice.  Looking for suggestions on the best way to get from Bologna to the cruise terminal in Ravenna.  We arrive the day before the cruise so could either spend the night in Bologna or Ravenna.  Car rental looks to be around $300 for a day! Train could be an option but no direct line; need to transfer in Rimini and trip takes about 3 hrs 10'...

19 hours ago, Porky55 said:

Our Premier isn’t going to open our Queensland State border before September, so I don’t hold out much hope for International tourists into Australia by December this year - let alone cruises ships, sorry KeepOnCruisingJG 🤔

I understand it's a long shot with everything that is happening and we have not booked anything yet - received promotion email from Celebrity and was thinking of taking advantage of it since the deposit is refundable up to September 15th.  Guess worst case scenario we'll just have all the information for when we are able to cruise again... thank you though!

22 hours ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Had the pleasure of cruising to Cairns 2 years ago just before Christmas.  There was a cyclone in the vicinity a couple of days before but it disappated and we were blessed with two days of calm seas and beautiful sunny weather.  Had to wear the suits to snorkel.  Bonus of cruising those dates is that the ship is likely to be decorated for Christmas.

 We did our first holidays cruise last year - 17 night Panama Canal - and it was nice to see it decorated for Christmas and have Christmas sing along in the atrium

On 5/20/2020 at 3:24 PM, christodan said:

I would like to add that we did a scenic flight over the GBR from Airlie beach. If you have limited time, it is well worth it to see it from the air. We booked the flights independently as booking through the cruise line was far more expensive. I highly recommend a scenic flight. And you can cancel 24 hours before if you need to. 

That sounds fabulous!  I'm not a sknorkeler (is that such a word? 🤔) and would much rather see it from above anyways! No shark, jelly fish, eels or sea snakes up there! 😆

Thank you for your responses - because we are not into our retirement years yet, we are restricted with our travel dates and therefore with available itineraries.  Would love to be able to also do New Zealand, but if we have to be in a plane for over 15 hours to get to Australia, I would like to see more of the country rather than just Sydney.  

Read about the rainy season up in North Queensland (December) and just wasn't sure if we should still go if there's a good chance that it'll be raining and excursions cancelled...

Has anyone done a similar itinerary (Great Barrier Reef)? Was looking at this Celebrity Solstice itinerary for December 14, 2020 since we would like to take our 15 yr old daughter with us (I understand that its very questionable if it will happen or not) but concerned with being typhoon season... Also read that it rains a lot up north and possibility of rough seas where it may impact certain ports of call like Cairns and Airlie Beach.  Apparently also not good for snorkeling since water are murky during this time?  Curious as if this is the case, why so many cruises during December?  What would be the best time for this itinerary (typhoon season runs until April I believe?)?