TMLAalum

12 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

 

The plus here are the drapes that close in lieu of the translucent panels and room-darkening shade on the retractable window. Regardless of the A/C issue, at least this cabin configuration would allow DH to step onto the "veranda" to snap a few photos while I still have a darkened cabin!

2 hours ago, gold1953 said:

I am local to Halifax and wondering what the Annapolis valley tour involves?? The city is wonderful if you haven't experienced it

Per the tour company's website:

THE ANNAPOLIS VALLEY TOUR  – Famous for its beautiful sites and great tasting wine, the Annapolis Valley provides a day filled of highs and lows …tides ! Some of the highest tides in the world !

We are hoping to see the tidal difference from our 1st stop on the Bay of Fundy and the last before we head back to Halifax. This is something our traveling companions really wanted and I am fine with wine so that is why we chose this tour. DH and I experienced the tides at Hopewell Rocks NB- admission allowed re-entry so in the morning we walked the shore and when we returned that afternoon it was completely covered by the sea!

Chiming in on Peggy's Cove....

We went there when we were staying in Lunenberg while on our own driving trip to 3 of the Atlantic provinces. We got there before the tour busses rolled in so did enjoy it somewhat to ourselves for awhile. Also visited Mahones Bay. 

Personally, I would not want to book a ship or private tour from the ship to Peggy's Cove. The experience is so diminished by crowds.

We have booked a private tour to the Annapolis Valley for our Halifax stop, but after seeing all these posts wondering if we should cancel and concentrate on the city since we didn't visit there on our land vacay.

11 minutes ago, Sphynxlady said:

We have dinner at 5:30 so HH limits us to 1 drink. Time 4-7 would be appreciated. Happy they added embarkation day.

If you start HH right at 5 and then secure drink #2 right before your dinner time you can bring it with you. If you have the early set dining you can arrive a few minutes late.

We prefer dining early too but with select we reserve for 6:15.

I had issues with signing out on my Dell laptop. Was down to the wire of 240 minutes on a 6-night cruise when trying to check-in for our flights on AirCanada out of YVR to PDX. DH's ipad had beaucoup minutes left at the end of our cruise. Ipad for me in the future.

Happy news about happy hour. 

Re: Sky lounge event for Elite and beyond. One was scheduled for our recent Summit Pacific coastal but the Captains Club host(ess) couldn't chase those already ensconced there out in order to reserve the space. DH and I did meet one couple in the tiny section that was cordoned off for us.

23 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I think that most that dislike the IVs have moved on to other cruise lines or sail in suites.  Myself included ...  The better itineraries are going to the E class ships ...  No way for one to be on the balcony and the other to be in the AC ...

That's why we are trying a deluxe porthole veranda on the Apex. We have been in an IV and for us, there were other drawbacks to that type of cabin in addition to the AC issue, for example the room darkening shade.

In Kotor DH and I decided to wander about when a sign on a side street said "To the Fort 1 euro". Sounded like an interesting place to visit so up we went. Little did we know that the fort was at the top of the mountain! Many steps later we arrived to a beautiful vista overlooking the sea, but what a climb it was!

IDK if it's still the case that HAL permits smoking in the casino on select days, but that alone is a reason to try Celebrity which allows smoking only in a few designated outdoor areas!

2 hours ago, KKB said:

@BuckeyeMark Thanks for this!

Regarding Celebrity desserts--yep, the look lovely but have always been lacking in flavor, imo.

Luckily not a huge dessert person!

Best desserts (and morning pastries) are at Cafe al Bacio. Can get them to go.

Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum | #1 Best Patriotic Attraction

The Boston Tea Party experience is @ a 1.3 mile/30-minute walk or @ 19 minutes if you take the SL2, with .5 miles of walking. 

I hear you about hiking sticks and flying with carry-ons only. 

If you can rent poles in Flam that would be ideal! We were able to rent poles last summer in Wengen Switzerland, splitting the set between DH and I since we don't hike with both.

We are taking a tour to I'Ile d'Orleans with this company while in Quebec:

Quebec Bus Tour – Tour d'autobus de l'Île d'Orléans et du Vieux Québec – Ville de Québec

Depending on when you are in Quebec, you can take the gondola up Mt. St. Anne's.

A rental car can take you along the St. Lawrence. Tadoussac has a provincial park which is great for whale watching! 

I recently linked reservations for 2 other couples so as to reserve dining times together. I needed their reservation #s and birthdates! It took awhile to do so for 11 nights.

Ironically, since then whenever I sign in to Celebrity and go to upcoming cruises, all three reservations show with us in the middle!

6 minutes ago, Nitemare said:

Have you asked the excursion company what their experience is?  I bet they do this every week and know how long it takes

I did reach out. The company didn't know but did say they'd refund our fee if we couldn't make the 10:15 boarding time for 10:30 cruise tour. 

I figured cruisers whose 1st US port was Portland would have a better handle on the actual timeframe.

3 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

If it's a ship's excursion, don't worry about it.

Not a ship tour which is why I am wondering about arrival time vs. actual disembarkation time.

Celebrity Eclipse is scheduled to arrive in Portland ME at 9:30am after visiting Canadian ports. I am thinking about booking a boat tour that has a 10:30am departure.  When we arrived in Portland via the CAT that holds 866 pax/200 cars from Yarmouth NS it took nearly 90 minutes to get through Border/Customs before we were able to drive away! 

If you've experienced returning to the US via Portland by cruise ship, please share your experience, thanks! 

3 hours ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

Our fingers are crossed, too, that the service continues. We've done it twice (have two more planned), and avoiding those ghastly East Coast layovers is very nice. Dublin has reasonably good service to the rest of the Old World, 

It's looking good!

Just did a dummy booking and Aer Lingus has posted flights to/from CLE up until mid-April 2025!!

We are hoping to do this from CLE next year crossing our fingers that Aer Lingus will still have direct flights to DUB. However, we will spend several days in Ireland before we head to Southampton.

Depending on pricing, we may do multi-leg booking Aer Lingus to London and then National Express to Southampton. Return from London since we plan on spending several days there after our cruise. The other possibility is fly direct to SOU from DUB. End of September this year will probably be the soonest to begin searching airfare for next year's cruise.

We have flown from ORY to SOU in the past spending the night before the cruise in Southampton. 

The bigger consideration will be your adding-on the Canadian Rockies! Too early in May will mean that hiking trails, if open, will be muddy. Mountain lifts will not yet be operating.

This website covers many of the highlight activities in the Rockies: Your Complete Guide to the Pursuit Pass (banffjaspercollection.com)

Therefore, I recommend the May 28th cruise.

P.S. We drove from Vancouver to Jasper, down the Columbia Icefields Pkwy, and onto Canmore in September 2022. Flew home from Calgary. You can do a one-way car rental. Highlights for us were a private hike to Mt. Edith Cavell, stargazing experience and cruise on Lake Maligne (Jasper/Patricia Lake Bungalows), frequent photo stops at waterfalls along the drive to Canmore (vrbo) with the skywalk and glacier adventure enroute, and Lake Louise gondola, and a walk down to the Bierstube and Bow Falls from Banff Springs Hotel.

On 5/12/2024 at 1:36 AM, D. B. said:

Hoping you find a cruise line you are comfortable with is not Snarky.

 End of post.

Blees your heart, D.B.!

As Elite Plus just like you, we are comfortable with Celebrity! So yes, your comment was snarky because basically that throwaway comment is one often made to other Celebrity thread posters who list complaints about their cruise. It is an insult, kinda like the one with which I began this post

As an investor with RCCL, I was concerned to hear "random cruisers" say one and done with Celebrity. Unhappy Summit cruisers will not hesitate to complain about this cruise line ot friends and on social media. While bottom line may not be significantly impacted, their "never again" statements do bother me.

12 hours ago, D. B. said:

To bad you put so much stock in “Random People “.

I don’t think anyone could blame Celebrity for Not tendering at Catalina?

  The sea conditions were just too rough to do it safely.

  The late arrival at Victoria was not just for Celebrity but also for an NCL ship That had to wait outside the harbor and was only allowed to dock just before Summit at 8:00pm. I watched that from the Sky Lounge between 7 and 8pm.

  How could That be Celebrities fault?

I hope you find a cruise line that you are comfortable with.

  I have 11 future cruises booked with Celebrity as well as 1 each with Silversea, Oceania and one with NCL.

@D. B.

My Comment about random people did not imply I put stock in them, although as an RCCL stockholder it is a tad concerning. Your comment about me finding a cruise line I am comfortable with was an assumption on your part since there was nary a complaint on my part- merely a question about refund of Catalina Island port fees. Did you check my signature before you misinterpreted my post?
Please reread my post carefully and then kindly repost with a less snarky comment, thanks.

Mea culpa for not adequately conveying my appreciation to you for the information you provided re: the harbor master’s decision to delay Summit’s arrival as that was the part of the Captain’s announcement I had missed.

On 5/9/2024 at 5:27 PM, D. B. said:

Day 6.

Summit was scheduled to arrive at Victoria BC today at 4:00pm.

Then the Captain notified all guests that because of the sea conditions the harbor master has delayed our arrival time to 8:15pm🙁.

 

D.B.

 

 

Since I was in a "secret" space on Deck 3 playing MahJongg with roll call and FB players, we missed the part about the harbor master being the person responsible for our delayed arrival into Victoria when we went into the hallway to hear the Captain's announcement around noon.

Happy for your win at the casino. I did pretty well with 3 little piggies.

I do wish that port fees were refunded for missing Catalina as was done in the past if a stop had to be abandoned. The random people we spoke to blame Celebrity for missing Catalina and barely docking in Victoria and will likely not book this line again. Lots of lost revenue for RCCL due to zero ship excursions in those ports. That being said, every desk at Future Cruises was filled when we walked by the evening of the 9th!

I had both app pass and paper at the ready!

It was so much easier to have a paper boarding pass on hand vs. holding my phone along with juggling my purse and carry-on. Same thing with airline boarding passes.

FWIW-

The 5 Cinque Terre Villages are so crowded that a day trip is not as enjoyable as if you stayed in one of the towns for several days and visited the others from there.

Portovenere, a world heritage site is an easy trip by public bus or boat from La Spezia. While there you can take an hour long 3 island boat tour (https://www.porto-venere.com/en/three-island-on-boat)

Perhaps there will be an excursion offered to here, but we used the bus r/t. The stop was maybe 5 blocks from the pier.