jael001

I asked about luggage tags and was told in the UK they no longer send them out and we are to print them off ourselves.

For those of us in the UK wanting to book that Scandinavia and Shakespeare cruise, an inside cabin is showing as £926 which is $1317 and we dont have the offers available :(

yes it's doing that for me too, it's saying 11 results at the top but then says "Sorry, we can't find any matching results." :(

fabulous photos, thank you. We're on this cruise in August so it's great to see.

Call and ask, they can be flexible. You will lose your deposit but if it's still a saving it might be worth it. Our cruise in August dropped by over £1000 for the 2 of us. I called but couldn't cancel and rebook due to the flights being booked and paid for in advance so they were flexible and allowed us to keep the original booking, along with the cabin and booking reference, we forfeited the original deposit and got the price drop. Still saved us a lot of money and I was thrilled with their customer service, very friendly and helpful.

Hi Tacu, we are cruising on the Equinox in July and haven't heard of any changes to our itinerary as yet. Did you hear directly from Celebrity or did you book through an agent? I'm quite anxious to know whether our itinerary is going to change as we have booked flights out of Istanbul which I will obviously need to change if our itinerary changes. :(

As far as I'm aware, cruises that start or end in Istanbul will still do so, but cruises that were due to stop in Istanbul midway through the intinerary will no longer do so.

Do the cruise lines have different prices for different countries because some countries have extensive consumer protection laws?

 

Perhaps some of you Brits could enlighten us on what consumer protections you have that the USA and Canada do not have?

We have ABTA and ATOL protection. This is the information about what they cover:

PROTECTION SCHEMES: ABTA The ATOL scheme of financial protection (see below) covers flight-based holidays. If you buy a land or sea-based package holiday (such as coach, rail or cruise) from an ABTA Member your monies will be protected by the ABTA scheme of financial protection. This means that if your travel company fails and your holiday can no longer go ahead you will be entitled to a refund if you are yet to travel and hotel costs and transport home if you are abroad.

In addition to financial protection, ABTA Members are also bound to comply with the ABTA Code of Conduct, which ensures high service standards and fair terms of trading.

Booking with an ABTA Member also gives you recourse should you have a problem or complaint with your travel company.

PROTECTION SCHEMES: ATOL ATOL stands for Air Travel Organisers’ Licence. It is a government-run financial protection scheme operated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

What you pay for your package holiday that involves flights and holidays including a flight plus accommodation and/or car hire, must be protected under an ATOL licence.

You will receive an ATOL Certificate from your travel company at the time you make your payment, and you will need to keep the certificate safe.

ATOL cover means that if your travel company fails and your holiday can no longer go ahead you will be entitled to a refund if you are yet to travel, and hotel costs and flights home if you are abroad.

Please note: flights booked directly with airlines are not protected under the ATOL scheme.

ATOL is a financial protection scheme, it does not provide other assistance if there are other problems with your holiday.

When your money may not be protected:

Scheduled flights booked directly with airlines: you have no protection for your money if the airline fails financially.

Accommodation-only bookings: these are not legally required to be protected. However some travel providers, including many ABTA Members, choose to protect these through ABTA. Check with your travel company what protection is in place.

Holidays sold by airlines: some airlines offer protection but some do not, if you are going to book your holiday directly with an airline, check with them before you book.

We're on one of the cruises in August that has had Istanbul dropped but is still visiting Kusadasi and Bodrum. I wont be at all suprised if they announce they're going to drop the Turkish ports altogether, which will be very disappointing if we have to miss Ephesus as that was one of the main reasons for booking this cruise.

The main train station and has left luggage. If you want to walk from there to St Marks or the Rialto Bridge then look out for signs on the corners of buildings which will direct you, and the same when going back, the Piazzale Roma is sign posted in the same way. Nothing takes too long to walk and it's so beautiful. We did a 5 days escorted tour there in October, it was wonderful.

That was really great footage of her leaving, she looks good.

Look like she's backed right up :(

Did she start moving and stop again?

I'm watching from the UK :)

The cruise we're on on 8th August says "Naples, Italy" and not "Naples (Salerno), Italy" as I've seen others say. I'm not personally bothered either way as we want to go to Pompeii regardless.

nevermind, I found what I was looking for.

My daughter and I are both sushi addicts and sailing on the Reflection in August so looking forward to this. $15 per person is really very cheap considering what we pay here in London for sushi.

Yes you are correct they have both.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2299888&highlight=plug+outlets post#3

Fabulous, thank you.

Are there European plug points as well as US ones in cabins? I've only been on RCCL before (sailing from the UK) and they have both. I need to make sure I have the right adapators before we sail.

I was just on the phone to Celebrity (about something else) and asked about luggage tags in the UK and it was confirmed that in the UK we dont get luggage tags, we either have to print out from the website or get them put on at the dock.

Hi,

 

I'm the guy on your roll call with the 15yo daughter :)

 

We also did the Western Med a few years back on he Indy. My daughter MUCH prefers Celebrrity to RCI. There are far fewer kids on board so the group of teens tends to be smaller and more "focused" rather than the kids flitting from one group of teens to another - if that makes sense.

 

As others have said, she needs to get to the Teen club on the first night - it's where. The groups form and then they are pretty much left alone at that age, they just use the Teen Club as a starting point. Be prepared to not see much of her, my daughter, Jenny, would eat with us but disappear from the table straight after dessert and we wouldn't see her again until midnight, she. Often got back to the cabin after we were in bed !

 

I met the group of kids she was hanging out with and they were all top-class kids, really pleasant and polite, nobody stepped out of line, all really well behaved. I had no worries about her. She is still in touch with some of them still even a few years on and despite them being in London, US, Canada etc.

 

She will have a great time.

*waves* I'm so glad to hear that, it sounds perfect for my daughter and hopefully she and your daughter will hang out together.

I've been putting off booking any excursions as I'm wary of intinerary changes again.

Additional information from my previous post:

On Royal, you make reservations for shows, on Celebrity you do not. The spa offers specials on port days- so great to take advantage before or after you leave the ship for the day. Royal has much more going on then Celebrity- the crowd on Royal typically has many more children and teens. Having said that, I am sure your daughter will enjoy the ship. You can access the Persian Garden for a fee. I would see it first, as we were never impressed with it- even when we got it "free" in Aqua class. I think you and your daughter will enjoy Qsine and the lawn Grill for special (fee charged) dinners. You can call Canyon Ranch Spa for more spa information. Celebrity will give you their number. You will not have access to Michael's Club, suite only or Lumine Restaurant. Blu is also reserved to Aqua Class. If you are a RC diamond member, you will have reciprocity and get the benefits of Elite Celebrity members. You can get discounts on many services including internet and dining. Also, daily with a couple of exceptions if you are a Diamond member, you will be invited to a cocktail hour in the sky lounge. Unfortunately your daughter will not be, unless she looks older!

 

We are fans of both lines, in fact in January we spend one week on the Allure of the seas with family and the following week the Celebrity Silhouette just the two of us- the best of both worlds.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks so much. Unfortunately we're not diamond members yet, it will be a while. The only RCCL ship we've been on was Independence of the Seas doing the 2 Western Mediterranean itineraries they did a few years ago (don't know if they're still doing them). Now that my daughter is older, I dont think she'll miss all the activities that the Indy had too much, they were fine when she was 10/11 but now she is more liable to just chill. We only have 2 sea days on the trip so that will help with any boredom too and being a teenager, she's happy just to sleep all day if she can get away with it lol.

Thank you for this, it's great to be able to plan ahead :)