gprentice

https://theargentineexperience.com/

13 hours ago, wallysdtr said:

That is too bad about the entertainment.  We have been lucky to have enjoyed several talented group.  One that impressed me greatly on the Reflection was a trio of men I would guess to be in their 20's.  All Motown hits sung with such beautiful voices.  We got to meet the gentlemen early the next day.  The nicest guys ever.  I am hoping they are back on the Reflection when we cruise in March.  

Just got off the Celebrity Silhouette yesterday. 

Those guys you speak of must be 'Uptown', as we really enjoyed them too - with all the Motown hits.

Some people we talked to thought it was the best show of the cruise.

5 hours ago, caranc said:

Thank you for this. I’ve been waiting for photos. I have been able to keep my FV cabin but only when we dropped the 5th person off.

 

do you have any photos of the bathroom? As it been upgraded? 
 

is there still a door between the bedroom and lounge for privacy?

 

is there suite level furnishings on the balcony.

 

was the sofa bed comfortable? I will have two sleeping on there.

 

I was hoping there might also be some suite benefits but presume they are not honouring this until you actually pay for a suite. 

The bathroom was a normal balcony cabin style bathroom.  I think they need to upgrade it if they want to turn the Family Veranda into a suite.  They should really increase the size of it too, as it seems too small compared to the rest of the area.  I believe the room is 575 sq ft. total.

I didn't sleep on the pull out couch, (my daughter did), but I did lie down at one point and it wasn't as comfortable as the master bed.  She said it was more comfortable than the pull out couch in our hotel in Fort Lauderdale - the night before the cruise.

There is a door between the master bedroom and the pull out couch area, as well as a door between the desk area and the main hallway.   There is no door between the master bedroom and the desk area (which is like a walk in closet).

They were measuring the balcony for something - perhaps new furniture?  Had a great 70" TV in the main living area though!

Just back from the revolutionised Celebrity Silhouette.   We had the family veranda 8108, and they changed the layout.

It used to have a master bedroom and a small bedroom with bunk beds  for other family members.

Now the small bedroom has been changed into a dressing area for the master bedroom.  It looks great, but our daughter travelling with us had to sleep in the pullout couch in the main room.   They told us future plans are to convert it to a suite for the 2021 sailings.

Graham

Our upcoming cruise is on the Celebrity Silhouette in Feb. 2020.  We are a party of three booked into a veranda cabin.

Received a moveup letter from our TA about 60 days before the cruise:

upgrade to royal suite 
min:$1500 
max:$4000

upgrade to celebrity suite
min:$1000
max:$2250

upgrade to sky suite
min:$750
max$1750

upgrade to concierge class
min:$100
max:$400

upgrade to family veranda
min:$100
max:$500

After thinking about it, the idea of a Family Veranda sounded really good for the three of us. (separate bedrooms).

There were only two cabins available for our sailing, so I thought I'd have to bid the max. to win ($500/ea x2 = $1000).

However, I sent our TA an email asking how much extra to pay for an upgrade, and it was $1000, but it came with $300 shipboard credit reducing the cost to $700.  So we paid for the upgrade and declined the moveup offers.  If we really didn't care if we got it our not, we would have used the moveup process at a lesser amount.

Last year we took the train from Termini to Civitavecchia and we offered 'help' by many people. Was travelling with my wife and two daughters. The people offering to 'help' were especially aggressive when going down the platform in Termini to the train. They insisted on validating our tickets before boarding the train, and actually came on the train with us to 'help' us with our luggage despite repeated 'no, thanks'.

We gave them a few euros, but they kept pestering us until one of the local train riders stood up for us and rattled off lots of Italian words to them until they left. This year, we are taking shared or private transport from FCO to Civitavecchia just to avoid the hassle.

The actual train ride wasn't bad, and was only 5 euro each. However, we don't want to have to deal with that again.

You'll love it! We've been on many Christmas cruises and really enjoyed them. Bring small gifts for Christmas Day that they might find useful on the trip. We found travel days during the holiday much more stress free. When your family is with you on the trip, all the Christmas cooking is already taken care of by the ships staff, and you can spend time with your family.

All of the holiday related work is done, and you just enjoy the family time together.

Graham

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Hi, my wife, her mother, and our kids did basically the same day in Santorini on a cruise stop in May 2004 and we loved every minute of it. Not sure how much has changed in 10 years, but they love to preserve their heritage.

Took the cable car to the top, walked down the main street and found a car rental place, and rented a small 4dr yellow car (they only had manual shift transmissions in stock back then). I recall it didn't cost a lot (60 for the day).

Drove all around the island - saw covered dig site (Akrotiri) - which was free admission for us because it was a Sunday....(strange, I know - but we didn't argue)

Drove out to Oia and had lunch, then looked out at the most beautiful view.

Driving was really easy there because there wasn't much traffic, and it was a small island (hard to get lost). The views were world class.

Here's my pics of the trip: ( - lots of other pics, but scroll down 1/3 of the way for Santorini)

Enjoy your trip!

Graham