MustBCruzn

Thank you so much for the heads-up! We're on-board the Rotterdam right now, and I'm heading to the future cruise desk. 😃

5 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Thank you for your service and yes, that was a long time ago. 

 

 Unfortunately the weather prevented me from taking the pictures I had in mind as any plans I had to walk from the main gate to the NEX, via the road that goes past the hospital were blown away in the wind and the rain.  I did try to walk from the exchange up to the skeet and trap pits beyond the baseball field but by the time I got to the field the wind had become unbearable so i turned around.  

 

 Here are the few photo’s I did capture .. 

 

 

 

 

Wow!!! Thank you so much for this walk through memory lane. Nothing has changed...even the anchors. Thank you for taking the time to take these photos. It took me right back.

19 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 I had not planned to post pictures of the base since it’s not really a place cruise tourist may be interested, but since you asked now I will. I was on the USS Oklahoma City 70 - 73, Navy Communications Station 73 - 78, and USS Midway 81 - 84.  That all seems so long ago.

 

 

I was stationed on Okinawa 76 - 77, and at NH Yokosuka from 77 - 79. Yup, it was a long time ago. 😅

6 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

I am going to go to the Navy base, where I was stationed on three occasions, just to look around while my DW is going to be meeting with her sister for lunch and shopping.   It’s going to be interesting to see how much the base has changed in 34 years. 

Your pictures are wonderful and have me in full reminisce mode. I can't wait to hear how your visit to the base was (and see pictures). I was stationed at the Naval Hospital, Yokosuka in the late '70s, and have such fond memories of my time there.

So excited to follow along. We have this itinerary on our radar for 2026. It will be my first time back since 1987!

15 hours ago, keesar said:

We had a fantastic CVP who suddenly disappeared.  I suspect he was let go.  His name still appears on my invoices but when messages are left, I never get a return phone call.  Then I was transferred to another individual and she has since disappeared.  Now when I call, I usually get someone from Mexico or Jamaica.  Some are novices and will admit it.

 

This has been our experience exactly. Our CVP was fabulous, and took great care of us for many years. About four months ago the calls were suddenly automatically transferred to the off-shore call center. Since that time the service has been very spotty...from difficult to understand, to "I'll have to check with my supervisor." Once in a while I've gotten an ok representative, but nothing that even comes close to my previous CVP. 

We've flown out of Schiphol many times, and in fact will do so again in May for a British Isles cruise which also ends in Rotterdam. Our departing flight is at 11:30 am, so we're spending the night at the Airport Sheriton. As many have mentioned, the traffic from Rotterdam to Schiphol, and airport security can be a real zoo. It's not worth the stress to us. 

3 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Not to me. Along with the inflated pricing comes a sales pitch that is annoying. I have tried telling the person performing the service that I prefer a quiet service (massage or facial), that I will not be buying any products and that if they want an additional gratuity to dispense with the sales pitch. Despite this, the sales pitch happens. They must be under quite a bit of pressure to sell. I prefer the services I can get at home. Half the price (or less), just as good or better and no sales pitch.

This has been my experience. I really hate the sales pitch which ruins the relaxing massage. Add that to the service being twice the price of what I can get at home, it's a no-go for me.

2 hours ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Thanks, I just read most of it yesterday, as I was on a cruise myself.  I enjoyed it and it reminded me why, if I ever do another Antarctic drive-by it will be on Princess, rather than Celebrity.

I couldn't agree more (thank you Ken!). After following along on Ken's wonderful adventure, we booked a Princess Antarctic cruise for 2025. We've been long time Celebrity cruisers, but have recently branched out to Holland and Princess. You can't beat thier itineraries. @Ken the cruiser you should be getting a kick-back from both Princess and HAL! 🙂

50 minutes ago, Tropical77 said:

Hello everyone,

 

I love celebrity (travel with kids) and was looking into the Antartica cruises for 12/24. Seems they don’t have anything scheduled until 2026. I called celebrity and the representative didn’t know.  Anyone knows if I should wait to see if any sailings appear for that date or just go with another line?

 

Thanks 

Princess has some fantastic Antarctica sailings. Check out @Ken the cruiser "live from" blog on the Princess site. His commentary and photos inspired us to book this cruise in 2025. Check out his link  here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2984033-live-from-the-sapphire-30-day-antarcticasa-b2b-jan-20-feb-19/

Ken, I've loved following your cruising blogs on the Princess, Celebrity, and HAL boards. DH and I have been tossing around the idea of an Antarctica cruise, and your photos and comments on this cruise has convinced us to do it. We just booked the Sapphire Antarctica for Jan 2025--and we were able to snag an aft balcony! Thank you for all your time and effort on this, so many of us have benefited from your work.

On 1/11/2024 at 8:34 AM, upwarduk said:

I want a proper balcony which I will get with Princess.

This is exactly how DH and I feel. We really enjoy the E class ships, and sailed the Apex twice in an SV and loved it. That was followed by a cruise on the Beyond in an IV...only because there were no SV's available, and suite prices were rediculously expensive. So we thought we'd give the IV a try since we really liked the itinerary. Well, we're one and done with the IV's. We really disliked the lack of a true balcony. A window that opens just didn't do it for us. We were drawn to the great itineraries of HAL, so we decided to branch out after 20+ cruises with Celebrity. We sailed on the Niew Statendam and the Rotterdam this past summer, and really enjoyed our cruises--the ships, service, and onboard experience were great. We also have a HAL Antarctica cruise booked for January 2025.

23 hours ago, cbfb said:

We were just on the Beyond and we were going to book a suite on the Ascent. The only cabins left showed they were connecting. The person at future cruise told us they have the alcove area outside the room and a connecting door inside. Can anyone who has had one of these cabins confirm? We didn’t book as we didn’t want the inside the cabin connecting door. 

We're recently off the Apex, staying in SV 9307 which shows "connecting" with suite 9305. It was fabulous. The cabins themselves are not connecting. As others have previously mentioned, you simply share a private hallway. The rooms are very private and quiet. At no time did we hear our neighbors except when we were on the balcony at the same time (wonderful balcony, by the way). I would not hesitate to book one again. Of course our first choice would be an SV right in the middle, but you have to be quick for those! In fact, we have the Apex booked again for July 2025, and have the same "shared hallway" SV cabin booked (because again, we were a bit too slow to book--those SV's go fast!). But, we're very excited for our cruise, and already know we love the room and the balcony. Bottom line, don't let it scare you away from booking.

We're flying United Airlines in May from Colorado Springs to Amsterdam with a layover in ORD. We originally had a 3 hour layover, which I was comfortable with. However, we just received notice that our flight from COS into ORD has changed, now giving us only 1 1/2 hour layover. It appears that all other options for that day are even shorter, so a simple change isn't an option, and prices to fly in a day earlier and spending the night at an airport hotel are through the roof. For those of you familiar with O'Hare, is 1 1/2 hour layover adequate? Of course the United phone rep says it is. Am I sressing for nothing? Thank you for your help.

We booked the 7-night, Jan 4th cruise. The itinerary is boring, but we don't plan to get off the ship. It's just (hopefully) a nice warm get-away in the winter. We got an SV at an incredibly low price. I think there were pricing errors when it first came out, because now they've increased significantly.

16 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Pro-Palestinian crowds try to storm air base housing U.S. troops in Turkey | Watch (msn.com)

 

Still wanna go?

Wow. Absolutely not. I was stationed on this base in the early '90s, and my heart goes out to those men and women stationed there now.

On 10/6/2023 at 11:54 AM, Joker54 said:

After seeing this thread I tried to contact my CVP, her extension was answered by someone else and she told me my CVP was gone. Then she transferred me to someone else and I asked that person and she said the CVP was just off today. Seemed add as it should have gone to voicemail if she was out.

 

So I sent her an email, which bounced as undeliverable and that was followed shortly with an automated response advising that my CVP was no longer with the company and to be patient while they assign me a new CVP....

 

I have 8 cruises on the books through Oct of next year as well.

 

Cheers

My experience exactly. I e-mailed my awsome CVP yesterday about a cruise (I've used her for years). Today I got the undeliverable notice stating "no one by that name."  I decided to call her directly and the call was auto-redirected to the call center. To make sure I didn't get her extension wrong, I re-dialed. Nope...redirected to the call center automatically. I've been on hold waiting for a rep to answer for 40 minutes now. I have my phone on speaker while doing other things (like this). This stinks.

25 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

We were on Apex 19 July in a SV and had a lounger, two chairs and a table. Plenty of room for all of it. I really like having the lounger. 

That's the sailing we were on as well. Maybe I should have tried @Georgia_Peaches $20 idea. 😀

We were in a SV on the Apex in July, and we had just two uncomfortable chairs and a very small table. When we asked our room steward for a lounger, he said they were no longer available. We loved the SV, but the small, uncomfortable deck furniture was disappointing. 

3 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

OK, let's do a quick survey. Just your CC status, please, and if you are staying with X or looking elsewhere. 

 

Elite-plus, booking elsewhere.

Elite-plus, booked 3 HAL in 2024, 2 HAL and 1 Viking Ocean in 2025. First time in 15 years we've booked a line other than X.

2 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

What ship on HAL if you don't mind me asking?

It's on the Oosterdam, roundtrip from Athens. 

11 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

 

The new NRD policy and the absolutely ridiculous increase in price for a refundable deposit is just another reason we are walking away.

 

Saw an itinerary of the Adriatic coast on Connie that we would have loved to do next year as it's a bucket list item and one we had to cancel because of Covid but the cost increased $3000 with a refundable deposit and a non refundable is $1300+ .... not willing to lose that kind of money.   Life happens and sometimes plans have to be changed.  Just another way X has alienated us.

This was us exactly! The Adriatic has been on our list for quite a while now, and we just couldn't logically book X with those conditions. We found a wonderful Adriatic itinerary on HAL with a refundable deposit, the All Included package (including gratuities), and a beautiful aft suite--and quite a bit less than X is priced. We booked it. 

15 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

I booked 2025 on Azamara.  I’m also in the market for a spring Alaska cruise that I was eyeing Solstice but now leaning towards Ruby Princess or Koningsdam.  We’ll see.   

We've cruised the Solstice to AK several times when we lived in Seattle. We're planning to visit family back there this May and decided to tack on another Alaska cruise. We looked at the Solstice again, but ended up booking the Koningdam instead, as we were able to get an aft Neptune Suite for significantly less than an SS on Solstice. Glacier Bay was also a big factor.

31 minutes ago, Keys Kathy said:

I don't care who the CEO is, I am not sailing with them because of their prices and reduction of services and quality. Now they are reducing the offering of "All Included" I am booked with MSC and Virgin.

This. We've now booked two cruises with HAL in 2024, and two in 2025. Their itineraries are much more varied than Celebrity's, their prices far more reasonable, and their "all included" is still actually all included.

15 minutes ago, RichYak said:

No there isn't. Only non-alcoholic beverages are in the grab & go lounge fridges on my last 2 cruises.

This was our experience as well while on our July Baltic cruise on the Apex.