kennetro

Wonderful review!!!  Thank you so much!  

.....from a fellow Texan,

Ken

There is a Roll Call (in the Roll Call Forum on here) for this cruise that might be a more convenient way to chat with your fellow passengers, and get some suggestions.

7 hours ago, forgap said:

Curious if the cost of the visa could be disputed with your credit card company.  After all, you paid for a service you didn’t receive.

Have wondered the same thing!

Thanks so much for the "uber-fast" response!!  Happy Sailing!

On 6/26/2023 at 7:45 AM, ckmedsec said:

We stayed at the Holiday Inn by the cruise port in early June.  Great hotel. The location is excellent and the hotel itself was clean, staff was amazing. They also have a great breakfast to start your day. 

Hi.  Can you tell me whether or not you experienced any problems getting a taxi to the Cruise Port on the morning of embarkation?  It looks a little far to try to schlepp our luggage on foot.....  Thanks for any advice!

1 hour ago, daetchief said:

And pay attention to the 'Up to...' wording.    The "Up to $10,000.00" savings could apply to the Regent Suite, not necessarily the Veranda Suite...

Ahh, good to know!  Thanks, all!

1 hour ago, 1982CruzStart said:

Go to 'find a cruise' and find the specfic cruise that you are wondering about. Scroll down past the itinenerary info and the pricing area and just below it there will be a line that tells you what the air credit is if you chose to do your own air. 

Example

A savings of up to CA$5,050 per person is available when arranging your own flights and transfers.

 

Ignore the CA as i book through the Canadian website so hence it gives me everything in CAD. On the US site i am sure it will just give a $ amount. 

Thank you so much!  Much appreciated.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how does one find out what the amount of the flight credit might be if I choose to purchase our own air travel?

Yay!  Ours got here today! --- 3 days earlier than they said they would.  Guess now all we have to do is finish packing all those steamer trunks!  😉 

Just got an email from USPS Tracking.  Our Medallions are due to "arrive here January 3rd by 9:00 p.m."  They'd BETTER.  We leave early the following morning (the 4th) to fly to FLL!  If they don't arrive the night before, I'm gonna be p*ssed.  Wonder why they chose to wait until the very last second??  🤔

On 12/26/2022 at 8:48 PM, MishelleMcc said:

Hey!  Maybe others will be on board too!?!?!?  Ahoy Mateys!!  Any of you coming with us???

We have two friends from Denver joining us on this cruise.  "Bill & Gary"   We've cruised with them twice before, and Bill even flew here to Dallas to take care of our two big Weimaraners for us while we went to Antarctica last December.  Both are super nice, and super fun!  You'll enjoy them.

Tried & tried to book a QG on QM2 for Dec. 2024, but it kept rejecting my World Club # every time I entered it (...and I was entering it directly from my card!).  I gave up, but was pleasantly surprised when our Cruise Planner called me to tell me he had already reserved a room for us about an hour earlier.  Got exactly what we wanted.

Hi Mishelle & Sue.  We, too, are booked on this Cruise to LAX.  Thought we had the rest of 22 and all of 23 planned out & booked, but then out of the blue last week, DH decided he wanted to go somewhere "warm" for a couple of weeks in January before our already-planned "spring" trip.  So here we are.  We're Ken & Ray from Dallas.  We've actually done the Canal before, but this trip adds a couple of new countries that we didn't visit before.  We're seasoned travelers (a nice way of saying OLD), and have been to 67 countries.  This cruise will bring us up to 70.

Yes, we also wanted to do the old locks again.  Before, we went through them on a very small flat-bottomed "tourist boat".  It was fascinating being so low to the water that you could literally touch the slimy green concrete walls of the locks on both sides of the ship.  This time though, we'll be on a tall enough ship that we can watch the little 110+ year-old electric locomotives (or "Mules") pull us through by cables.  It's going to be fascinating. (again!)

But first, this fall, we'll be going to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, & Hungary, (on a Tauck river cruise), then taking a train to Nuremberg &  Munich for our 3rd or 4th OKTOBERFEST!!  <-- obviously we LOVE it!  It's one of the most fun things we've ever done!

Looking forward to meeting you two!

Ken & Ray

We leave for Argentina in 19 days.  Just to be on the safe side, we booked our Covid test appointments within the "72 hours of arrival" window.

Our T.A. also called Cunard when I mentioned this.  He was told by Cunard that this 'rumor' is all over social media now, but according to the Cunard rep it is nothing but a rumor.  Let's hope so!

Thanks for the welcome. I was a little surprised you even saw my post since this thread has been inactive for several months, Maybe that situation will change as the date draws near. Probably not ;p

 

The ship staff will post a notice for LGBT social gathering (formerly called Friends of Dorothy) on the community bulletin board near the Guest Relations desk. The staff arbitrarily selects a time and location (often the very popular martini bar) around 7 or 8 pm. But this time and location is only a suggestion. We can always make changes as needed.

 

I got around to booking flights and we arrive in Perth on Saturday 03 March. I am sure we will be in no condition to sight see in Perth until the following day, having traveled for over 24 hours. I see that there is a light rail train from downtown Perth to Fremantle, close to the cruise port. Will probably use that to get to the port.

 

Next step for me is to find hotels in Perth and Sydney for a few days after the cruise, then investigate excursions, We are usually "do it yourself" travelers, but I will see what is available.

Cheers,

Tom

Hello Tom & Alson. Welcome to the Roll Call. Ray & I will be staying at the Parmelia Hilton in Perth (good rate) -- also arriving on Saturday. We haven't made arrangements to get to Freemantle yet, but are going to inquire as soon as we arrive at the Hilton. I've read on other boards that Uber is a reliable alternative in Perth, but we'll also inquire about the light rail with the hotel concierge upon arrival. Just don't want to have to schlep our luggage too far.

The last time we were in Sydney, we stayed at the Holiday Inn "Rocks". It was right in the center of the action, and served us well. (Nicer than most Holiday Inns.) This time, however, we're heading home as soon as we arrive in Sydney, as we pretty much "covered" everything there just 4 years ago.

We're usually "Martini Bar" rats, and are usually there pre-dinner every night, but we always check the boards as well.....

Look forward to meeting you (ALL!).

Ken & Ray

Hi Jonjonms. You will not be alone! :) We are Ken (64) & Ray (70), and will also be on this cruise. So glad to know we'll have someone to celebrate with in "The Martini"! We, too, retired almost 9 years ago (wow, how time flies!), and have enjoyed lots & lots of travel. Ray continues to do some consulting work, but calls his own shots now, so he still really enjoys 'staying busy'. We're from Dallas, Texas. This will be our 11th cruise with Celebrity, but we've also done several cruises on Cunard, & Princess, and even a Nile River Cruise. This will also be our 2nd trip to Australia (with Celebrity), but first time to get to New Zealand. Four years ago, we climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge while there, which was a blast. But so far, the only available activities & shore excursions are seeming sort of 'ho-hum'. --- however I do still have a lot of research to do for this trip. Thanks for starting this thread! Let's stay in touch & compare notes! See ya soon.

Ken (& Ray)

Excuse my naivety. I have printed "Express pass" it has two names on it. I guess one "Express Pass" is sufficient for two people? Just to be sure

Yes, you're all set! See you there!

I was packed last Friday! ....which also means I'll probably be the "most wrinkled" on the ship...

We leave in 48 hours. Yippeee! Safe travels all!

Thank you Wanda! I thoroughly enjoyed your review and photos! It all looked spectacular.

Glad you found our little roll call, Jules. Where are you guys from?

We considered staying on for the 2 night Le Havre jaunt, but at the time we booked, the nightly rate was twice that of the other two cruises. ...plus we were just in Le Havre 2 years ago, so we opted to just disembark & stay in Southampton for a couple of nights. One day will be spent taking the quick train trip to Winchester for sightseeing, & then 2nd day will be spent hopping over to Portsmouth to tour the ships & museums at the historic dockyards. Then the next morning, we'll just hop back on the Eclipse for the Ireland/Iceland cruise....

I wish we were leaving today!

Hi Jules & Paul. Yes, we are on the same cruise, & will look forward to meeting you! We are Ken (me) & Ray from Dallas, TX. We are also traveling with two good friends, Chris & Rick, from Northern California.

I started a Roll Call for this cruise back in August, 2015, but so far, have had only one other couple chime in.... if you want to scroll back & check that out.

We are also staying on for the Ireland & Iceland cruise after this one.

I think we've gotten everything (including both "pre" & "post" cruise) booked as far as transfers, excursions & tours, and of course theater tickets (for London) etc., etc. Now comes what will seem like a long, long wait before we can actually PACK & head for the airport! :-)

Ken

Hi...just back from our wedding cruise two days ago. Intentionally hadn't come back after posting this because of all of the issues we continued to have with The Wedding Experience.

Once we got onboard and Celebrity actually took over, it was a 180* difference and everything turned out better than we could have imagined.

Celebrity, as always, is a class act. We were dumbfounded, however, by the continuous problems at every turn during the planning process with The Wedding Experience.

All of the nonsense we had to deal with to get to the actual event was absolutely worth it...we hosted beautiful events onboard, had the honor of being married by Captain Tasos, and shared the most memorable week of our lives with our family and friends!

If anyone has specific questions, I'm happy to share our experience.

So glad all turned out well, and congratulations!! Now you'll share some wonderful memories for the rest of your lives! Enjoy.

Aussie/Mexican couple (Matt and Juan) planning this cruise.

Just hoping our boss will give us time off for this trip.

 

To book thru PP or not ..... ??

 

Fingers crossed

Welcome Matt & Juan! We look forward to meeting you onboard.

Ken & Ray

I agree with you both. It breaks my heart to see the status of this ship today. I still love watching the video outside the SS United States restaurant onboard Celebrity ships & listening to John Maxtone-Graham narrating it. One of my favorite people (RIP, John) talking about one of my favorite ships, while waiting for one of my favorite at-sea restaurants!!