MustBCruzn

Norris - Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews. This one in particular has me especially excited, as we board the Apex on July 19th for a Baltic cruise. We, too, have booked the Radisson Blu City Center for our pre-cruise stay--for better or worse, depending on how the rest of your hotel comments go. On your recommendation we made reservations at the Five Flies restaurant for our last night.

So true! My daughter and I were on a 2-week land trip in Sicily last month and had decided to try carry-on only for the first time, and we're so glad we did. Not only was it super easy to manage our luggage as we toured the island, but on our second to last day ITA announced a strike beginning at midnight. We were booked on ITA from Catania to Rome early the next morning, so we quickly changed our flight to later in the evening to get to Rome before the strike began. The next morning, we spoke with several couples from our Sicily tour who were on our same flight to JFK. None of their checked bags made it from Catania. Because of our positive experience with carry-on only for our 2-week Sicily trip, I've convinced DH to go carry-on only for our Apex Baltic cruise next month.

Great review and pictures. Thank you for taking the time to post. I'll be on the Beyond in September, and your review has made me even more excited.

We were impacted by the ITA strike in May while in Sicily on a land trip. We had to cut our vacation short by a day to get back to Rome for our Delta flight to JFK (which was not impacted). Many people were not so fortunate with changing flights and were stuck at the Catania airport.

Thank you so much for your fantastic review and wonderful photos. We're sailing on the Apex next month on this same itinerary, and your review has added a whole new level of excitement.

Thank you for taking the time to do this great review. We're on the Beyond on this same itinerary in May '24, and your review has us even more excited.

So well said! This describes us exactly. We, too, are Elite + (which no longer means anything). DH and I took our first cruise on the Rotterdam last year. The ship, itinerary, entertainment, and food were outstanding. We enjoyed it so much that we're sailing on her again this June and have a B2B booked for next year. We still have a few X cruises booked for this year and next, but we've definitely found ourselves adding the Rotterdam to our rotation. The lack of regular balcony cabins on the E class (we were one and done with the IV) is what made us look at the Rotterdam.

We're sailing on the Apex in July out of Rotterdam, and were fortunate to have snagged an SV. After sailing in an IV on the Beyond last month DH and I agreed never again. If suite prices don't come down to a more reasonable level, that leaves just the few SV's to choose from on an E class ship for us.

So true! As a Navy Nurse I was stationed in Spain for 3 years, Sicily for 4 years, and Crete for 2 years. LOVED my time there!

This exactly! We've done 5 med cruises and land vacations in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. We have another med cruise out of Rotterdam in conjunction with a land vacation in Germany this July. I love the ease of cruising, and find the multiple ports help us determine where we want to spend more time in depth with a land vacation.

This was exactly our experience when we sailed on the Nieuw Statendam last year. This year we're sailing on the Apex in July and the Rotterdam in September. We've definitely added HAL's newer ships to our cruise lineup.

Our two early-30's children were blown away by their 2 E-class cruises this past January. They have many S and M-Class cruises under their belt, but are now sworn E-class converts. It was the first cruise for thier travel companions (also early 30's), and they came back addicted to cruising and the E-class. They all had a fabulous time and are still talking about it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this. Our son and daughter (31 and 33) are both Elite Plus and have been huge fans of Celebrity's S class ships--that is until they and their friends sailed on the Edge and the Apex. They're now all E-class converts. I think they're the demographic Celebrity's trying to attract to gain loyalty into the future.

This made me laugh out loud! I've been an RN for over 30 years, and I completely understand. 🙂

I booked with my Celebrity Vacation Planner, so you may want to call. I added that info as an edit.

Europe is now open for booking...Just booked the Beyond for May 2024! I booked with a Celebrity Vacation Planner. They're still not popping up on the website, so you may want to call.

Thank you for the heads-up. We were able to book the same SV for the Mar 25th Great Barrier Reef and the following NZ cruise. So excited!

We'll be joining you on this cruise! We were able to grab a center SV on deck 9. We sailed on the Solstice from Hawaii to Vancouver in 2018 and loved it. It will be fun to go the other direction on the Edge.

Just announced that they'll open Nov 15th.

We booked our Jan 2024 Australia and New Zealand B2B cruises on Oct 12th 2021, so hopefully the new releases will be out soon.

I'm flying post-cruise from FCO - RDU via BOS and in May and the layover time in BOS has just been shortened to 3 hours. I've never flown through Boston before, and given the chaos in the airports right now (although I hope it's better by May), is this an adequate amount of time? I still have the lingering nightmare of my 4-hour Atlanta layover on my flight from FCO to DEN last month (which I thought would be adequate but was just awful and I barely got to my seat in time). Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I agree with many of the previous posts. We did it on the Reflection with our two adult children in 2019 and we all enjoyed both the show and the food, but agreed that it was one and done.

Just now logged in -- after trying multiple times throughout the day. Unfortunately under "manage reservations" is says I have zero upcoming reservations. I should have 5. 😞

This was our experience with our IV on the Edge. We loved the ship, but were not fans of the IV cabin and won't book one again. Our second Edge cruise was in a SV...now that cabin we really enjoyed and would definitely book an SV again.

I'd love it if they did, but not holding my breath. We're booked on the Koningsdam RT Hawaii out of San Diego for this January, and the RT to Hawaii and Tahiti in 2024. We're huge X fans, and would book one immediately if they offered these or similiar RT itineraries. We've done Honolulu-Vancouver twice on the Solstice, but we love the ease of a RT.