Algebralovr

Thanks for the help, all. Sounds like it will be a full ship. We are only on board for 7 nights, much as I would love the 10,11, or 14 night cruises. Maybe in the future!

Meanwhile, it sounds like I will want to book a cabana to make certain we have sun chairs and such. If the ship is that full, getting a sun lounger may be difficult.

Thanks also for the polite answers regarding DS. I'll just plan to order bottles of wine, since the choices on the by the glass aren't great anyway.

We toured both of the forts on our own. We found that things were well labeled. It does, however, depend on your background and what you are looking for. I have a history undergrad degree, and took a number of military history courses, plus read up on the forts before leaving home.

It is not a difficult walk, especially back down. In both cases, the trolleys were full, and it was easier to just walk the hill up as well.

How long has it been since a Celebrity cruise? I just started in early 2013, and never got a rose on a formal night, even in suites (6 of my 7 cruises to date) nor Aqua (last month in Aqua on Summit).

I started sailing Celebrity in Feb 2012, and on each cruise, I received a rose at dinner on the first formal night, whether we were in the MDR or a specialty. That was still true in Feb of 2014, but not June of 2014. I will say that I only ever saw them given to women, but we had one delivered to our stateroom in Feb 2014 at the start, too, because the steward thought we were elite. :)

And now I've read that the nightly chocolate on your pillow has been replaced by chocolate covered cookies on formal night only.

These each may be just small cuts but they add up. :(

 

Also, as to those 3 pieces of fruit - I could swear that in 2013 there was a fruit basket in the cabin with an actual selection of fruit. :(

We had chocolates on the pillow in June still. In Feb 2013, we had a basket of fruit in CC and I even asked that it be modified to what I could eat, and it was done cheerfully.

Look on ebay for the Tuxxman. We bought DS a tux for about the price of a rental.

We were there less than a month ago. Mom thought the coffee in the buffet was fine. My sister and daughter thought it was undrinkable swill and went to the Café AL Bacio for their coffee. Both bought drink packages without the alcohol.

As my DD said, "Grammy also drinks Folgers at home." She is also of the opinion that decaf is really made from the dirt that coffee is grown in. I guess you might say she is a bit of a coffee snob.

What do your parents normally drink? Did they try the free coffee in the buffet?

Looks like yet another cutback. On the Equinox in June, we didn't even receive a rose on formal night - definitely a first! On every other Celebrity cruise I've been on, no matter what room class, I've received a rose on formal night.

On another note, we didn't really miss the reduced activities staff on the Equinox in June. Every day was a port day, there were NO sea days, and most people were off the ship from pretty early until pretty late. There were still plenty of things listed in the daily, but most were in the few hours after they expected people to be back on board. About the only things I really saw during the day were in the spa and had a fee, but again, we were off the ship all day. It will be interesting to see how things are handled on Caribbean cruises with more sea days.

Silly me, while on board Equinox with the "kids", my mom and sister, I booked us all into a New Year's of 2015/2016 cruise. I think that has to be just about the most expensive week to sail, but it is the one time that I should be able to get the family together. I've realized that the kids aren't really kids any longer, and one will have finished college the year before, and the other will be about halfway through college. I didn't book over Christmas, since I'm pretty sure DD's SO wouldn't be willing, but figured New Year's stood a chance.

So, for those of you that have sailed that week before, I have a few questions.

First, will the holiday decorations still be out on board? My thought is to sort of celebrate late.

Next, DH and I will be celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary while on board. It should be the first formal night. Should we tell them? Can we expect anything special?

How crowded should we expect the ship to be? How many children? We only have two sea days, at the start and the end. I assume this will be good.

I'm considering booking a cabana for the week, anyone know when the will go on sale?

How strict are they with regards to a glass of wine for a person under 21? DS will be a little shy of the "magical age of 21" that some in our puritanical society think means you are an adult. He will already be contracted with the US Army, we allow him a glass with a meal at home, and he understands the difference between accenting the meal with the appropriate wine and being stupid. In Europe it wasn't an issue. Will it be in the Caribbean.?

Thanks!

It also has to do with what band is available to passengers. They have K band, C band, etc, but if I remember correctly, the top is kept for ship needs, and then what is left is made available to passengers. The ship has to keep in touch with the computers at "home" so that you get your OBC, the casino works correctly, the future cruise staff can make reservations in real time, credit cards authorized, vendors updated with numbers, etc.

In the Med last month, I often got better email access by turning on my T-Mobile phone as soon as we seemed to be in range rather than depending on ship Internet, the ship Internet was often just pitiful.

Since you had mentioned being GoT fan, I returned to let you know about our experience.

We arrived in Dubrovnik on a rainy Sunday, and we're met by Tom, who I had found at Tours by Locals. We had pre-arranged a GoT Tour, and were thrilled to learn that Tom was both a GoT fan and knew his history and the area. We saw a number of places outside the city, then headed to the old city. We ended our day by sampling some local wine.

Only part of the family is into GoT, but we all enjoyed the tour!

Greetings all!

I finally feel like I am catching up from a 2.5 week vacation. The cruise on Equinox in the middle was awesome!

We boarded in Venice, and it was an easy boarding on the Celebrity side of things. We had been in Venice for a few days previously, and with 6 of us, one in a wheelchair (my 20 yr old DD), we chose to take a water taxi to the cruise port. It was an expensive ride (€140), but made life MUCH easier and better for all of us. When we arrived, about 10:45 am, we were greeted at the taxi dock, our luggage tags were checked, and our bags were collected to appear outside our rooms a few hours later, and we were escorted into the correct terminal to check in for our cruise. I will also note that we had 3 generations on the trip, ranging from 18 to 70 years of age.

We were handed a paper telling us what check in group we were, but since priority check in had started, and we were Select, I asked and we were allowed to proceed directly to check in. They had just started, and we were the first group in our line over at the accessible check in. They were still experiencing a few technical issues, but got things worked out and we were soon checked in.

We next were through the security scan and boarded. For our non-US friends, I appreciated the different liquor rules, as my 18 y old had two bottles of wine in his bag for me. He had room, I didn't. Security also let my DH's bottle of Lemoncello on. We expected it would have been collected, and worried that we might not get it back, but the Italian security agents passed it through. We wanted to bring it home, so we were thrilled!

A nice young man named Christopher assisted by pushing the wheelchair on board, and we boarded on deck 4. They were offering a bag check at the MDR, which was very nice! We dropped a couple of the carry on bags and went to the other side to make sure our food allergy notes had been received. The hostess on duty looked at me, and greeted me by name! We had seen her every night for 11 nights in February! Our notes were in place, our table requests were available, and we headed to the Oceanview for lunch!

DD has a number of food allergies (soy, rice, tree nuts, peanuts, melon and more) but found it easy to eat on board. She had pasta that first day for lunch. They did a great job the rest of the trip!

Now, when we booked the trip, everyone was healthy and fully mobile, and we had 3 standard balcony cabins in a row. DD ended up in the WC at the last minute, after an illness, but we decided to take the trip anyway, while the rest of us took tours most days, she choose to enjoy the ship most of the time. The chair didn't fit through the stateroom door easily, but since she could take a few steps to get in and out, we made it work. The crew were awesome, always jumping to open the door for her, give her a push down the hall to the elevator, etc. Her favorite hangout, the Café AL Bacio got to know her well. And when they would see her coming in her little red manual wheelchair, would start making her usual order and bring it to a table for her. Additionally, we appreciated all the help from the Asst Matre'Ds who always got her foods from the back to make sure there was no cross contamination. Ana from Serbia also helped a great deal by taking her order the day before, and making sure my DD had a great meal every evening.

The rest of us had a great time as well! We had arranged tour at Dubrovnik using Tours by Locals, and had a great day with Tom, seeing a number of the Game of Thrones sites. We had previously set up that he would meet us at the port with a car and driver, and I was glad we had! We saw a great botanical garden, then dropped DD off at the ship to rest, then headed to the old city. We walked a while, then finished the day in a wine bar before catching a taxi back to the ship.

In Corfu, my DS and sister arranged a bicycle tour, which they greatly enjoyed. The rest of us took a ship tour to the beach. The Chandris owned hotel was very helpful in working with us to get DD to the beach and we had a nice day. The bike trip, however, sounded amazing. Sis had found them with a Web search, but didn't book until after we boarded. She checked at the excursions desk, didn't find anything she wanted, but was assisted by the conceriere in making arrangements.

After all the excitement, we needed a day to rest, so we all stayed on board in Katakalon. We had a great day with the ship to ourselves. Then we went to Santorini. DD decided to stay on board and enjoy the ship's services, and it turned out she had the pool all to herself all day. The rest of us took the recommended ship tour of Santorini, and had an interesting day. We enjoyed hearing about the island, loved the winery (bought a few bottles), and we're amazed by the layout and steps. The number of people was rather amazing as well, and we were glad we had taken the 7 am tour so that we could get back to the ship and away from the people.

Next was Ephesus, and I had booked a private tour with a car for our family. It was a great decision, as we got to spend the time we wanted where we wanted. We booked through TAYF tours, and booked the highlights tour. The engineering was amazing to see!

We arrived in Istanbul on Friday afternoon. The sail in was beautiful, and the weather was perfect. We headed off the ship, and walked to Galata Tower. What a view! It was about to rain, so we headed back to the ship since none of us had any rain gear. We had a nice dinner in a nearly empty MDR and got ready to enjoy our last night on board.

We were scheduled to disembark about 8:30 in the morning, And Daniel from the theatre lights/sound crew helped get us off the ship with DD. We really appreciated the help! We got a van to take us to the apartment we had booked, and headed out!

Thanks to Cruisecritic.com, I had pre-booked the photo package that gave us all our prints and the digital, and we enjoyed the results.

Once again a great cruise as we ventured to the other side of the world!

Both of my kids colleges charge 3% to pay tuition by a credit card. That is a bit more than most cruises we take. Of course cash payment, bank transfer is free. Even with my 1% cash back nit worth using the CC? I agree with the amount they are getting why can't they just absorb the fee?

My university charges 2.75% as a fee if tuition is paid with a CC. They used to not charge a fee, but a few years ago, realized how much they were spending on credit card fees. The rule was passed that the public institutions could not use tax money to deal with the CC fees, since only some people benefited from it. As a result, they contracted with an intermediary to run CC charges and pass the actual payment to the institution. The intermediary charges 2.75%, probably pays 1% and everyone is satisfied - except those of us who would like the points we used to earn by paying tuition. When they started that, they also stated doing in-house financing at a rate of 1%. So if the student has a semester fee due of $10,000, the U will break it into 4 or 5 payments, and charge 1% on the unpaid balance. That is usually cheaper than paying 2.75% on the whole sum.

We have a different issue. We booked the reflection fall TA on a well known online agency's Memorial Day special. Got some nice perks. Applied for our shareholder credit and were denied.

 

That was disappointing, especially when I joined our roll call and found out others had booked the identical special, cabin type, perks, etc and WERE given the shareholder credit! Then I found out the same thing happened to a friend of mine, who was also given the $250 credit. This is just wrong! Either we're all in or we"re all out. Of course I wouldn't throw anyone under the bus but something is not right here.

I suggest you call the Captains Club and see if they can look and see what might have happened. I didn't get it a couple of years ago, but they were very nice about explaining it to me.

While my last couple of cruises haven't gotten me any OBC from being a S/H, I'm holding onto my stock. It is more than double what I paid, gets a small dividend, and one of these days will come in handy. One of these days, I'll have enough time off to be able to do a TA. Meanwhile. I'll keep scheduling 2 weeks a year in the Caribbean on a Celebrity ship, seeking the best price/perks I can.

For me, 5 years isn't really that far out to plan when it is a big trip. In 2007, I started getting an idea of taking the kids to see Europe and the cradle of modern civilization. I already have vacation requested at work through 2020.

But, I will definitely look at some of the flexible cards out there. I may very well just plan to save and pay cash for tickets, but save hotel points and stay in some of my desired places for little or no cost.

Thanks, all!

FlyerTalker, your questions are exactly the info I need to boil down, but was having difficulty figuring out the questions. Do you have a recommendation as to which airline miles program I pursue? The AirCanada site specifically says they do not award miles if you were not already a member. What a labyrinth!

Looking at what we have planned out, and other expenses (like two kids in college) it will likely be 5 years before we fly back to Europe. It sounds like a lot of the miles expire after 36 months, so it may not matter that much. Work usually sends me on Southwest, and I get to charge those flights to my personal card ;) so I will probably keep it for a while, plus the fact that we have 3 upcoming trips to FLL in the next 2 years. My guess is that I can get all of them free. Add to that, it is now difficult to find a non-stop from STL to MIA or FLL, and Southwest still runs a couple of them a day. Our secondary airport is MC I, and they have a couple a day as well at the present time.

I will, however, start reading up on the best other card to have. Most of my hotel stays seem to be in Hilton properties, with a couple of Hyatt thrown in. Sadly, Hilton raised the number of stays needed to hit Gold, and I will miss it this year.

One more note, after being on Swiss Air and Lufthansa, they or another airline of the same caliber will be my first choices to fly over the pond.

Greetings air experts!

We just returned from Europe, and found out just how uncomfortable a long flight in coach can be. In the US, I'm a Southwest fan, usually flying 2-4 times a year for business and I have the Southwest/Chase card that I pay the $99 per year to use, but means my Feb cruise flight has been free the last couple of years.

On the Europe trip, we flew out Swiss Air, and back a mix of Lufthansa and Air Canada. We want to go back to Europe in 3-5 years, and decided after the trip home that the next time we take that long a flight we will probably pay for business class. We are not currently enrolled in any FF programs other than Southwest.

Our home airport (STL) has limited international flights these days, but we don't mind running up to ORD for a nice savings. That is what we did this time ($600 per pax savings, with 5 pax). Next time, I expect it will be just DH and me crossing the pond.

So, in order to maximize our "status" and payoff the best, what steps might we take? I don't expect to get an award flight to Europe, but I understand that some CC programs help. At the present time, we mostly use a CC from our credit union that has no cost and gives 1% cash back. We use it regularly and usually get about $500 back every 14 months or so. I also use a USAA rewards MC, since it has the Chip and Pin. The SW/Chase card is used for our small business.

Suggestions? I hate to get another CC, but will if it will help. Otherwise, should I just plan to save and spend $5000 per person for those flights? The Swiss Air flight out actually offered to upgrade us for $500 per person, but I didn't budget for it and didn't know what I was getting into. The AC back didn't offer such an upgrade. I would have spent it in a heartbeat.

We use colorful duck tape on our bags to help us tell at a glance which his ours. Walmart has a nice selection. A few 3 inch pieces on each side and at least a few of them will still be there when the luggage arrives.

No way!

Fly in the day before. You have to be on board by 330 pm or so for the safety lecture.

At Ephesus, if you are a history buff, you are better off booking a tour with a guide. We used TAYF tours last week. Had a great time. Go in with your roll call for good rates.

Don't plan to purchase much clothing on Equinox, we were just there and they got rid of the low cost options. We saw very little in the shops in my Midwest US price range. Some kind of t-shirt material dress for $100. My sister who lives in Switzerland thought the prices were OK, but Switzerland has the highest costs in most of Europe.

See what you can find in Rome. Your hotel should be able to make recommendations.

Make sure you follow up with the airline as to where you will be. They can have the bag forwarded on to any of the ports you be in. Don't be surprised, though, if it finally catches up to you in Barcelona.

I just returned from a cruise that stopped there. We had a great tour by Tom on Tours by Locals. It started as a Game of Thrones tour, but since not everyone was interested in that, we also had a great overall tour. Tom is a licensed guide, knows the history of the region, and lived there growing up. He arranged a private tour for the 6 of us, including some private transport and some walking. It was a very pleasant day in spite of the rain. Be prepared for crowds in the old city!

We just returned from Istanbul this week. We rented an apartment on airbnb from "Gulnur" aka "Aslan Apartments" which was nice. We had a kitchen, which allowed me to feed my DD with food allergies, we were just one and a half cable car stops away from Sultanumet square and all those attractions.

I highly recommend either the Rick Steves book or the Lonely Planet book.

We found the cable car easy to use, prices lower than home in the Midwest US in many ways.

Be sure to use an ATM to get out Turkish Lira for admission into many of the sights. In some places, they ask for Euros, so it would be good to have a couple of hundred Euro or USD as well. Our transport wanted Euros rather than TL for payment.

We were also on the June 14 cruise. Our water taxi (6 of us, one with a wheelchair so it made sense) pulled up about 10:45, there were people at the taxi stand to tag and take the luggage as well as a transporter to push the chair we brought with us. When we got past initial security and into the registration hall, we were given a number and told to wait. I saw the sign that said "Select" and priority check-in and said, I have Select status and there is no line. What do we need to wait? He went and checked, and we were escorted to the WC accessible check-in location, where there were 4 agents doing nothing. A couple of them didn't know what they were doing, so it took longer than it should have, but we were checked in and on board about 11:30 or noon. We proceeded to the MDR where they had a bag check for carry on bags and verified that my DD'S food allergies were listed. We were thrilled to see the hostess we had in February, who looked at me, thought a moment, and greeted me by name.

Hope this helps!

Greetings all! We just got back last night from our trip to the Med, and OMG it was an experience!

Background info: in early May, my DD (age 20) got sick with plain old strep. No big deal, right? Not so fast! She had an extended reaction and ended up with very, very swollen and painful legs. Did a round of meds to reduce the swelling, and hoped she would recover by trip time. Unfortunately, we were unlucky and the swelling and pain didn't completely go away. We had to decide if we were going or not the last few days before leaving. Now, keep in mind, I had been planning on this for more than 3 years, and spent $$$$$. While we had insurance, we were looking forward to seeing my sister for the first time in a couple of years, and meeting her BF as well as some old friends. We decided to go, but rather than watch her struggle on crutches and wince with each step, we ended up getting her a WC at the last minute. And I do mean last minute! We had a 7 hour drive to the airport (the price to fly out of Chicago was $600 per person cheaper than flying out of St Louis) and she was able to keep her feet elevated the whole way in my van. We arrived in Chicago the night before, late, and then had to figure out how to get a WC we could take along. So, at 9am, I was on the phone to medical supply companies near O'Hare. The nice people at Fitsimmons Surgical Supply were able to help us out. They were willing to rent one for a decent price, and then offered to discount the price to purchase one that no one seemed to want. They called it ugly, and lowered the price to meet the price of a new purchase on Amazon! As for ugly, it is a shiny red frame with a green plaid seat and back. All the little old ladies loved it! For less than $200 and to make my life easier since it meant I didn't need to worry about paying for damage or returning it, I bought it!

Off we went to check in at O'Hare! We flew Swiss Air, and things went well. At least mostly. The guy who checked us in didn't tag the chair correctly and while it was gate checked and they met us in Zurich with it, they didn't have a transporter to assist us in getting to our connection. Luckily we spoke up and asked how we met our connection, and one of the transport staff jumped in to make it right. We got to ride in the elevator to the small plane rather than her trying painfully to climb the 20 steps needed to board it out in its parking space. That was an experience! He also told us how it should have been tagged, so that we knew to look on the way home.

Then we arrived in Venice. Not a place that is WC friendly. We arrived at the apartment Wednesday morning and she spent the next few days resting. The cobble stone sidewalks were just too painful to bounce her over. The cruise started Saturday, and that was a pleasure! We arrived via water taxi and the cruise line showed how well they can handle things! They assisted us to check in, assisted us on board, etc. We did not have an accessible room, so we could not just wheel her into the room, but since she would take a few steps at a time, we could get her in and out. She didn't get to see much of the ports, they were just not WC friendly most of the time. We had booked a private tour in Dubrovnik, and they tried to make it WC friendly, but the place is mostly steps and cobblestone. Plus it was raining. We dropped her at the ship early, and half of us saw the old town while she rested. For any of you who watch the Game of Thrones from HBO, I'll post a review on the Europe board later.

At Corfu, we booked a beach break at a hotel, and she enjoyed that. We got to experience pushing the chair in the sand. The hotel was wonderful working with us and the chair, though. Meanwhile, my DS and sister went on a long bike ride tour.

The rest of the cruise, she pretty much enjoyed the ship while it was empty each day. It was a very port intensive cruise, with NO sea days. The staff handled her food allergies wonderfully, jumped in to give her a push when they saw her struggling on carpet or a slope, and just made it enjoyable! After a week of mostly resting and elevating her feet, the swelling started to go down! Then we arrived at Istanbul.

Istanbul is another not WC friendly place. The roads in Sultanumet area are again cobble stone. Lots of steps. Hagia Sophia was partly accessible. The ground floor is mostly so, with relatively smooth marble floors. Also, they did not charge the person in the WC to enter, nor the WC pusher. That was very nice of them. They had small ramps to go over the thresholds on the ground floor, although they were sometimes pushed away and we had to push them back in place. No big deal there. She missed the second story, where many of the previously plastered over tile murals are, but that is life.

Next we visited The Cistern. They had one of those chair lifts at the exit, so we went in the back way. It was a little scary, but they are doing their best. We appreciated it. We did not take her to Topkipa the next day because we asked a friend and were told about all the steps. After the previous day, she was glad to have a day to elevate her feet and rest.

The last day, we took her to the Grand Bazaar. Again, steps in interesting places, and lots of cobbles to get there, but she had rested during the morning while we visited the Museum of History of Science and Technology in Islam.

I have to commend many of the strangers we met while in Istanbul. As we would approach a step, and DS or DH would be pushing and the other and I would get on either side to lift. Often, a local would jump in from the front to help us lift as well. It often took all three of us to get her across those cobblestone streets, to prevent the chair from getting stuck in the ruts. While the average taxi or personally owned car did not stop to allow us to cross the street, and the stop signs and sometimes lights are merely a suggestion, the cable car drivers often stopped even when they had the right of way to allow us to cross in front. That was greatly appreciated! We also heard comments from many locals as cars sped by narrowly missing us, as they apologized for their countrymen.

We flew Lufthansa and Air Canada home. Lufthansa was great, tagged the WC correctly and had a transporter assist us at Istanbul airport as well as Frankfurt. The Air Canada flight out of Frankfurt then hit a delay after all the passengers were boarded. First it was just a few minutes. That turned into an hour. It was not a bad flight, although it was noisy and they never turned down the lights in coach for sleeping. No big deal, it isn't comfortable to sleep in coach anyway. Then we reached Toronto. The captain announces that there are 22 WC assists on board, and for those passengers to please wait until everyone else is off. The problem is that our 90 minute connection had meanwhile turned into a 25 minute connection. Since our experience had always been that the WC was waiting at the gate, and she could get off without the aisle chair, we went ahead and got up to disembark. No chair was waiting. They really were waiting to even bring the chairs down the ramp until everyone else was off the plane. Plus, DD is at her limit of walking. One of the flight attendants sees us standing there and has DD come sit down right inside, where she can out up her feet in business class.

Finally a WC appears. I jump in and ask if it is for us, since I only see the one, stating that we have a short connection to get to for Chicago. Sure! We get to the top of the ramp, and her chair appears. A little bit of discussion and she switches chairs, but then the transporter tells us to wait as he goes to assist another passenger in disembarking. Now what? We watch others come and go, and we are still waiting. I finally grab a woman in uniform, since we are getting worried about the connection. She helps us along, and we arrive at US Customs just after they close. Sigh. We are stuck in Toronto for the night.

The Air Canada rep looks over our boarding passes, looks up flights to Chicago, and says that he can't get us out until noon the next day. There are not seats for 5 on either of the earlier flights. I ask, how many flights before that are there? We don't mind not traveling together. I'd like to get going as early as possible since we still have a 7 hour drive once we get to our car. He asks where we have to go, and I comment a couple of hours south of St Louis. Then he says, "do you want to go to St Louis?" I say that the car is in Chicago, but if he can get four in our party to STL and me to Chicago early, I could collect the car and meet up with them closer to home. It worked!

The lesson we learned was that we really are spoiled in the US when working with a mobility issue. We are still glad we went!

We just returned, and my DD was put into a WC right before the cruise. There were no accessible cabins available, so we had to make do with a regular one. Luckily she could walk some, because the WC didn't fit through the door! We had to partially collapse it to get it in and out.

Rather than renting, check out Amazon. We ended up purchasing one for under $200.