CruisinKikster

I got my fare for July 21.

Since I usually cruise the Caribbean during Thanksgiving on Celebrity, I'm used to it. And it's not as bad as other cruise lines.

I just booked a sky suite for under $1700 pp going to Bermuda in July! I've been wanting to go to Bermuda, and I prefer the S-Class ships, so looking forward to this one! I'm coming up from the DC area. Debating about train to Newark and then ride share to port or if I just want to drive up and park. Likely cost will be about the same unless I can hit a good Amtrak sale.

CaptJerry, Thank you! I've been on over 20 cruises mostly on Celebrity but also a smattering on Virgin, NCL, RCCL, and Carnival. It's a tough question about whether I'd sail them again, because I didn't hate our experience and it was VERY different from sailing in the US. We also didn't sail Celestyal for the ship. We sailed for the itinerary, which is different from how I sail Celebrity. I'd say that Celestyal has a lot to offer: friendly staff, great itinerary, and good on board programming. It's also culturally much more diverse than the American-focused cruises we've done. We weren't enthralled by the food (hence why we love Celebrity so much and why we'll do Virgin again). I'd say the food is on par with Carnival or RCCL. So if all factors were the same, Celestyal isn't a top choice. But I wouldn't say no if the itinerary or dates were more important.

These are the daily activity sheets we had.

These are the bar menus. Every bar had the same menu. Our favorite of the whole trip was the martini flight, although I enjoyed all the Greek drink variations I tried. And I see all the pictures are upside down, but there's no option for rotation. My apologies!

I cruised on the Olympia about a month ago, and this is my very delayed review (and pictures of all the daily activity sheets in the comments) and thoughts about the cruise. Feel free to ask questions, and I'll answer what I can! We were in Junior Suite 7001. Embarkation - If you have your health forms pre-printed, you can drop your bags and just check in. We did not, so we had to stand in a very slow moving and chaotic line to get the forms. Once we got to check in, it was quick and easy. Then security was a short line. You can take the bus to the ship, but honestly I would have preferred to walk. The bus doesn't save any time, and it saves maybe a couple hundred meters of walking. Boarding - We could go immediately to our cabins, so we went to 7001. It was easy to locate, and we met our room steward almost immediately. Cabin - Our cabin was roomy and just as described online on the Celestyal site. One caveat, the window was overlooking the deck, not the water, so that was a disappointment. Also at the beginning of the cruise the bathroom smelled of sewer, but the stench seemed to be gone by the end of the week. Food - The food was very hit or miss on this ship. We found much better food on land, with a couple of exceptions. Breakfast - We ate in the dining room for a breakfast each morning. We sat with different people every day, and sometimes we could talk to them and sometimes not. Most groups just stuck to themselves in the morning. (There were no tables for 2 in the dining room, which we would have much preferred.) Lunch - On embarkation day, we ate in the restaurant with the buffet. It was fine. We ate at the pool one day. The burgers were fine, but nothing to write home about. We ate at the a la carte restaurant one day, and that was probably our best meal on the ship. The pasticcio (sp?) was amazing! We ate lunch off ship one day. Dinner - Dinner was fine, but again nothing stellar. Presentation was beautiful, but taste did not live up to it. Shore Excursions - Overall, I would not choose to do these again with the exception of one. Mykonos - We did the Mykonian dinner excursion through the ship. We basically had to run through town (or that's what it felt like), and our tour guide was constantly losing people. At the windmills, we got about 10 minutes to walk around and do some pictures then we headed back to the bus. Where we kept losing people on the way, so our guide was upset we were getting back late. The bus took us out to a small village tavern for dinner with a small dance demo. Dinner was good. Just a note - there isn't ever an indication of what is served as part of this, so I assumed there'd be some sort of choice given all the dietary restrictions. Nope. They just straight up served chicken (which I don't eat), and when I let them know, they prepared a plate of beef for me. Kusadasi - We arranged a private tour for this, and it was well worth it. We liked not having to wait for other people all the time. Patmos - We did not do a tour or excursion. Just walked around town for a bit, and it was a much quieter (and better IMO) version of Mykonos. Rhodes - We did not do a tour or excursion. Just hopped off the ship and walked around town. This was easily our favorite stop on the cruise. Crete - We did the ship tour to Knossos, and this is the only one we thought was worth doing. The tour is about an hour at Knossos and an hour plus in town for shopping, coffee, or wandering. Nothing felt rushed, and the order was good for feeling relaxed. We did have to wait for latecomers to the bus back to the ship (EVERY TIME), so that was annoying. Santorini - We did the Spectacular Oia excursion, and I was incredibly unhappy with this one. The point of doing this excursion was so we could be first off the ship and maybe get a little more time in Oia since we’d only be there for 4 hours. The tenders for the excursion took us to the very southern tip of the island, where we waited half an hour on the bus because not everyone got on the right boat and we had to wait for them. Then the bus drove the long way to Oia, and when we finally got there, we had about an hour to explore. This was when I realized that we would either be having a buffet dinner (which I don’t enjoy in general, and was Tex Mex in Greece – just never had good Tex Mex in Europe so this wasn’t a promising experience) or we’d have to spend our whole time in Oia getting something else. Well, it was wall to wall people in Oia and absolutely miserable, so we opted to eat there. Ended up at a nice (and mostly quiet) pizza place with a great view. It salvaged the excursion, but truly I would have saved my money and just done a la carte if I’d have known. I’m pretty confident that people from our ship who didn’t do an excursion made it to Oia before we did.

I appreciate the information you shared, especially since it was served without a side of judgment or insult. It looks like the Gala or Captain's events are only for 7-night or longer cruises. We're doing the 4-night, which I imagine is even more low-key since people are really there to island-hop. From what I can tell, the dress code online doesn't even mention no shorts in the main dining room. However, I think I saw that information somewhere else so need to double check. Since we are doing a short cruise in August, ideally we'd like to not have to bring a sports coat. If I understand you correctly, that really won't be a necessity, correct?

This is very helpful! Thank you!!

@ddaley822 - How long was the Spectacular Oia tour? Do you happen to remember how early you had to catch the tender back to the ship? We are on the 4-night cruise, so we will be there from 4:30 to 9:30 pm. I'm not in love with the cruise excursion options, but I'm also not sure if we'll be able to catch the sunset (which is around 8pm when we visit). Any insight is appreciated! Thank you!

I think we'll get enough of the religious sites in other places, so I really need to mix things up with other types of shore visits. I like the idea of a small town with shops and maybe making a beach day of it. Thank you!

I'm not really into visiting religious sites, and it seems that's all there is in Patmos. I'm thinking this might be our "optional" port where if we are tired and want to hang, we just stay on board. But I'd like to have some ideas that aren't centered on religious sites in case we do want to get off board. Also curious is this is a tender or a docked port?

I'm booked on a cruise on the Celestyal Olympia in August. My documents and their website say that we're departing and arriving in Lavrion, but Cruisemapper says Piraeus is where they are scheduled to be. They are in very different parts of town, so I'm not sure which one is right.

Celebrity is watch video then check in at the muster station. No need to stay for anything. They just need to check you off the list. Super easy.

I was on the same sailing, and also in a suite, and I agree about the Retreat Deck being way busy (we opted to hang out in the small alcove just outside the lounge as it was quiet there). The Retreat Lounge was also quite impersonal, which was a bummer after our experience in Retreat (aka Michael's Club) on the Reflection. I left this week thinking that I didn't want to return to the E-Class ships because it just wasn't the vibe I like. I also don't enjoy standing in line, and that's never really been a problem on the M or S Class ships, even in lower category rooms when the ships are full. However, I felt like I had to stand in line or jockey for position so often on the Apex. My SO and I really missed having a quiet lounge to hang out in and pre-game before dinner. The Apex seems designed so everyone is in one of three places (Eden, Martini Bar, Club) and none of them are quiet. We couldn't even get into Craft Social, even when there weren't games on. We enjoyed the food at Eden. Fine Cut was fine, but I prefer Murano's (and really missed having a souffle for dessert). Rooftop was a big miss for us. My ribs were not tender. The cookie was undercooked. But that mac and cheese - amazing. For Captain's Club things - we got the form at the beginning of the cruise and that was it. We attended the "sneak peak" in Eden, which was literally 5 minutes including the announcement from Shawna, so that was disappointing. We skipped the wine tasting. 11am was just too early and we were still full from breakfast. I asked our butler for coffee each morning delivered to our room. We like a hot meal in the dining room (Luminae for this cruise), so I start the day with some coffee on the balcony while my SO hits the gym. That was pretty much my only ask each day. He also walked us off the ship at debarkation, which we didn't expect but greatly appreciated.

I got an upgrade from an Obstructed Oceanview to Balcony on POA for $105 pp in September.

I cruised POA in September. I also didn't use NCL's wifi much, but I also didn't have much connection once we left port (maybe around half hour out is when I lost it). I had 150 included minutes, and I used maybe an hour of that, mostly on the last day. It's a port intensive itinerary, so I just used my phone's signal when we were in port. And then I was exhausted from a day of sightseeing so I didn't stay up too much past dinner. If you are working and need more internet than that, you may want a better package. As for the excursions, I'd just book it under the name of the person who gets the $$ off. The excursion we took did not look at names ever. They just collected tickets and counted heads.

We also did the alcoves on the Reflection during Thanksgiving last year. I don't recall if it was a sea day or a port day, but I seem to recall that we were next to a Carnival ship so it was probably a port day. I don't recall it being super noisy until later in the day, when there was a football game on. I think the noise from Carnival (Mardi Gras, I believe) was worse than on our ship. But really, it was still super chill, and we liked it. I would absolutely book the alcoves again on the Reflection.

Okay I see where you are coming from. That wasn't an option on the form. So, I guess no we didn't. But I'm not sure they would have captioned that video if we had. I will reach out to the access desk now and let them know though, because perhaps they are unaware. One thing that's disappointing to see is a lack of Universal Design. UD is all about designing things to be as accessible as possible to a wide array of users. So while the main people who benefit from captions may be deaf or hard of hearing, there are many many other people who also benefit from them. (Also true for ramps and automatic doors.) NCL could show that they care and are being inclusive by offering universally designed materials. (In fact, that they explicitly reference the WCAG principles on their website suggests that is what they aim for, but in this case, it fell very flat.)

It was required viewing to check in. That's not really a mere "educational or instructional" video. Anything that is required should be accessible -- either via captions or a transcript.

How does one get services without registering for them? Or am I missing something?

We have access services for the cruise, but the video should be fully captioned if it is required viewing before boarding. It's not.

Yeah most people think autocaptions are sufficient, but they really aren't. So it was disappointing to see it on the video today.

That's autocaptioned. Not real captions. See my response above about the problems with that.

Autocaptions came on. That is not the same as actual captions. Autocaptions don't have punctuation or capitalization so all sentences run into each other. They also "mishear" words a lot. They aren't access.