ROLL CALL: 15-Night Transatlantic on Constellation 05/07/2011

[cruiseguysusa]

If you are not familiar with Perry Grant or have not had the opportunity to see his performances, he can be found nightly in Michael's Club when not performing in the Celebrity Theatre. We have been told they are NOT TO BE MISSED!

 

Perry Grant, An Entertaining Legend

 

Fans of Perry Grant on Facebook

(created/moderated by a Celebrity frequent cruiser)

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47553235776

[InPR]

Just wanted to say "hi" to all that are going. I'm wxjcupo's partner. Can't wait for the cruise. Should be a blast!:)

[kruzguys]

Greetings Gents - a late booking, but a booking nonetheless. My partner and I will be joining and then to Paris for a couple days post cruise. Look forward to seeing you all and checking out the "solstice-ized" version of the Connie.

[dam1050]

Great to see some new people on these boards and we'll be looking forward to meeting onboard the "Connie" soon.

 

Gary and Chi --- Hope your flights came through OK, and meet with your satisfaction ... looking forward to seeing you again. BTW -- Was reading elsewhere on boards that Elite Michaels PM hours were changing to 5 - 7 .

 

Dave and Paul

[cruiseguysusa]

Welcome aboard InPR and Kruzguys! Nice to know who the partner is that wxjcupo referred to his his posts. :)

Kruzguys we love your username. LOL Looking forward to meeting everyone.

 

Dave thanks for the heads up regarding the change of hours for Michael’s Club. Is this the post you were referring to?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1375119

 

We met xellent (Arno & Joanne) on the Century this past November and I would tend to trust the post as accurate, we may have to seriously consider changing to second seating.

[dam1050]

 

Dave thanks for the heads up regarding the change of hours for Michael’s Club. Is this the post you were referring to?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1375119

 

We met xellent (Arno & Joanne) on the Century this past November and I would tend to trust the post as accurate, we may have to seriously consider changing to second seating.

 

That's the post Gary & Chi, we've also met Arno & Joanne on Constellation in 2009, such a nice couple.

Dave

[cruiseguysusa]

That's the post Gary & Chi, we've also met Arno & Joanne on Constellation in 2009, such a nice couple.

Dave

 

Yes, they are very nice Canadians from Toronto. Wonder if the other "Millie" guys from Toronto know them?

[InPR]

We're planners, so we already have these ironed out. There's a couple that we'll do on-our-own, but this is what we have planned:

 

4-wheeling in the Azores

Doing our own thing in Lisboa (gotta read up on that)

Hitting Mont St. Michel on the Cherbourg stop

Doing a semi-on our own Paris tour at Le Havre

Seeing the cathedral, castle, and sites all around Kent when we stop at Dover

Then we've got two days in Amsterdam before hitting London on our way back. Our English buddy will be showing us his town.

 

Anybody else booked these or are we the only eager beavers booking so far?

[wxjcupo]

Hi Everyone,

 

The offer still stands to link up reservations if folks want to sit together. We will be at second seating dinner and would love to sit with you all!

 

--Jeff

[cruiseguysusa]

Hi Everyone,

 

The offer still stands to link up reservations if folks want to sit together. We will be at second seating dinner and would love to sit with you all!

 

--Jeff

 

Hi Jeff

 

With Celebrity’s recent changes we are looking at moving to second seating. We booked through a travel agent and are blocked from making dining changes or linking. Only our travel agent can do that, and they do not respond. Nicely put our agent never return phone calls, even after leaving 6+ messages over a 3-4 day time frame. And the owner of the agency is even worse. Needless to say this is the first and last time using that agency!

 

Because of our limitation to make changes, perhaps those interested in sharing dining arrangements can meet after sail away in the Martini Bar around 5:30? We have always had good experiences with the maitre’d on Celebrity ships being very accommodating, even with last minute changes.

 

This is our first time sailing from Fort Lauderdale and we want to be out on deck at sail away to take advantage of the views and photo ops.

 

Please feel to email.

 

Gary

cruiseguys AT usa DOT com

[cruiseguysusa]

We're planners, so we already have these ironed out. There's a couple that we'll do on-our-own, but this is what we have planned:

 

4-wheeling in the Azores

Doing our own thing in Lisboa (gotta read up on that)

Hitting Mont St. Michel on the Cherbourg stop

Doing a semi-on our own Paris tour at Le Havre

Seeing the cathedral, castle, and sites all around Kent when we stop at Dover

Then we've got two days in Amsterdam before hitting London on our way back. Our English buddy will be showing us his town.

 

Anybody else booked these or are we the only eager beavers booking so far?

 

The only excursion we have seriously looked at is in Dover for Canterbury/Kent. I’m disappointed that the ship leaves Dover so early at 3PM. We haven’t taken a look at the other ports yet. Normally we book tours after we are on board.

 

We had some friends who did a Paris tour from Le Havre last year and were not happy. They felt rushed with a three hour bus ride each way and about five hours to hurriedly see a few sites. The real breaker for them was the labour unrest with the French bus drivers having a on and off strike several times during the day.

[dam1050]

Yes, they are very nice Canadians from Toronto. Wonder if the other "Millie" guys from Toronto know them?

 

I'll bet they do, as Arno & Joanne are almost "fixtures" on X ships they sail so often LOL .......

 

As for excursions for the upcoming cruise -- we haven't planned ours as yet, but will be booking any excursions onboard. As Paris is so far from Le Havre and IMHO requires several days to adequately see the sites there, we'll be passing on travellling into Paris. A little too much travel time for too short sightseeing time on the cruise at that port for our liking.

 

I'd like to get some of the tix for Amsterdam museums for our post cruise days online before leaving to save time in line-ups while there.

 

Meeting after sailaway in the Martini Bar around 5:30 sounds terrific ! I'll be the old haggard looking one with dark circles under my eyes from 2 flights the day before! :D

Dave

[cruiseguysusa]

I'll bet they do, as Arno & Joanne are almost "fixtures" on X ships they sail so often LOL .......

 

Yes, but they haven't achieved the level of Beatrice Muller of QE2 fame, yet. :p

[cruiseguysusa]

I'll be the old haggard looking one with dark circles under my eyes from 2 flights the day before! :D

Dave

 

I'm sure my circles will be darker than yours! We have a SFO-FLL red-eye. :eek:

[dam1050]

I'm sure my circles will be darker than yours! We have a SFO-FLL red-eye. :eek:

 

:eek: YIKES ! Hope you can catch some sleep during your overnight flight(s) or else we'll be pumping you with black coffee in the Martini Bar while the rest of us enjoy our libations ...

[cruiseguysusa]

Tram 28 looks interesting for self exploration in Lisboa, very good reviews on Trip Advisor. A one day transit pass costs €4 and is valid for Carris trams and busses.

 

http://www.top10portugal.com/tram-28-lisbon

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189158-d262792-Reviews-Tram_28-Lisbon_Estremadura.html

 

Wiki Travel has lots of good information. Will have to check out the other ports.

 

http://wikitravel.org/en/Lisbon

[cruiseguysusa]

In case anyone is interested in reading up on the ports, below are links to articles in WikiTravel.

 

Ponta Delgada, Portugal

http://wikitravel.org/en/Ponta_Delgada

 

Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal

http://wikitravel.org/en/Lisbon

 

Cherbourg, France [not much information]

http://wikitravel.org/en/Cherbourg

 

Le Harve, France

http://wikitravel.org/en/Le_Havre

 

Dover, England

http://wikitravel.org/en/Dover_(England)

 

Amsterdam, Holland

http://wikitravel.org/en/Amsterdam

[dam1050]

In case anyone is interested in reading up on the ports, below are links to articles in WikiTravel.

 

Great sites guys ... thanks a lot !

 

Here are a few links for Amsterdam some might like as well:

 

http://www.amsterdam.info/gay/

 

http://www.iamsterdamcard.com/

 

http://www.holland.com/global/cities/amsterdam/

 

http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting

 

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=327〈=en&section=sectie_online

 

http://www.annefrank.org/en/Museum/Practical-information/Online-ticket-sales/

 

Dave

[ilovebooking]

Greetings to all -

What a grand group we have on board for our upcoming cruise to Europe. We have sailed on the Constellation many times in the past. One trip was a transatlantic from Dover to New York. Werner and I are eager to be on this ship again. The new re-do sounds great (Martini bar and all.)

We will be at the "Flamingo Gay Inn" in Ft. Lauderdale for two nights b4 our cruise.

We first saw Perry Grant about 12 years ago on the "Amsterdam" on a Baltic Cruise. He is just fantastic and you will love his show. He has many fans, some who book many cruise back 2 back and back again just to be up front for a month or so.

We have just returned from a ten day "Piped Piper" cruise on the Equinox. This was our second trip on that ship. The time b4 was a transatlantic to Rome.

 

Good wishes to all and we will see you all in the Martini Bar,

 

Warren:)

[cruiseguysusa]

There are ten who have posted to this thread and probably a few more that aren’t aware of Cruise Critic or what FOD is. There is at least one more couple who will be aboard and I pointed them to this thread.

 

Right now there are five couples aboard who have posted so far.

(In order of posts)

 

wxjcupo & InPR - Jeff & ? - Mobile, AL

cruiseguysusa - Gary & Chi - San Francisco Bay Area, CA

westcoast1330 & dam 1050 - Paul & Dave - Vancouver BC

ilovebooking - Warren & Werner - Ann Arbor, MI

kruzguys - ? & ? - Washington, DC

 

We are allowed to post to the community bulletin board located near guest services. Usually we're on board by 1PM, so I will post our FOD/LGBTQ get together for the first night in the Martini Bar at 5:30 PM.

 

We are looking forward to reuniting with old friends, meeting and making new ones.

[voyagerx]

Recently returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise. They do not place any special group meeting announcements in the daily program with the exception of AA (Friends of Bill W). Since Celebrity is owned by RCI, I expect that no GLBT gatherings will be announced. There may be a board where a message regarding where and when gays will get together may be posted. The martini bar has always been the meeting place on the Millennium Class ships. On a recent Solstice voyage the "ice bar" was definitely the meeting spot. It replaces the old martini bar.

 

Also, as we will be booking tomorrow, we have not decided about dining. We much prefer open seating, if it is available. I believe our travel agent indicated that it was.

[voyagerx]

We will be coming in the evening before also. Are you staying at the Hampton Inn at the airport or the one on Andrews Ave.?

[jj1900]

Sounds like a relaxing cruise........do u think that there will be any single guys on this sailing?

 

Regards,

JJ

[cruiseguysusa]

voyagrex and jj1900 welcome to the roll call.

 

Recently returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise. They do not place any special group meeting announcements in the daily program with the exception of AA (Friends of Bill W). Since Celebrity is owned by RCI, I expect that no GLBT gatherings will be announced. There may be a board where a message regarding where and when gays will get together may be posted. The martini bar has always been the meeting place on the Millennium Class ships. On a recent Solstice voyage the "ice bar" was definitely the meeting spot. It replaces the old martini bar.

 

It has been Royal Caribbean’s policy (which includes the Azamara Club and Celebrity brands) not to list meetings in their daily programs for a few years now. However, activities/community bulletin boards are in the Guest Services area or Royal Promenade (on larger ships) where guests are allowed to post gatherings. There have been a few discussions on this subject in the G&L section of CC.

 

Our experience has been that the cruise line normally has a generic FOD meeting posted on the board. On one RCI cruise the generic FOD meeting was at 10 PM in the Schooner Bar. The music was so loud that we found it impossible to carry on a conversation, so a few of us moved to the Champagne Bar. We then posted a second FOD meeting for the same time at the alternate location for the remainder of the cruise. We have never encountered any issues in posting an alternative meeting time/place as long as the venue selected is a public area and not reserved for a private function.

 

The Champagne Bar (Royal Caribbean) and Martini/Ice Bar (Celebrity) do generally tend to be the defacto FOD gathering places.

[voyagerx]

We have been to all of the ports on this voyage previously. There should be a shuttle in Ponta del Gada. If notm the center of town is a somewhat long, but not impossible, walk along beautiful black-and-white stone mosaic sidewalks. A few good churches but mostly just a lovely, atmospheric town.

 

Lisbon we'll do the tram and probably use the elevators and other public transportation. Lunch in one of the gay cafes in upper town.

 

With an early start and train reservations, we hope to revisit Honfleur and Rouen. Have not been to either in a long time. Can still taste the moules a la normande (in cream sauce). Three hours in Honfleur should be sufficient, then a train to Rouen and then back to Cherbourg. We might instead rent a car, if we find another couple interested in sharing the costs. Driving is easy in Normandy, except for finding one's way around in Rouen. We have motored through Normandy before. Anyone interested?

 

Still working on Le Havre.