First time cruise... Adriatic Sept 23 ... need advice

[lreinstein]

Hi

 

My wife and I are planning to take our first cruise of the Adriatic on Celebrity to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I have some basic questions so hope I can get some advice.

 

- We have booked our Cruise already. When should we begin reserving the tours? Is there a way to get good deals on these through Celebrity?

 

- I reserved Spa treatments for the day at sea. How long are the reservations held without payment? What is the refund policy if I do pay?

 

- Any advice about specialty restaurants? Which ones are worth reserving in advance?

 

Thanks.

 

Larry

[alcpa1]

You will certainly have a wonderful cruise.

If you have not joined the Roll Call for your sailing please do so. Just click on Celebrity, find your ship, click it as well and find your date. You will find other passengers and great advice for shore excursions, onboard activities, and cruising hints.

You should see a charge for your spa treatment on your credit card bill. I can't help about the cancellation policy. There will be help with this on your Roll Call.

Since I don't know which ship you are sailing on I can't get too specific about specialty dining. If your ship has Qsine you might enjoy the experience. It's tapas on steroids. While many enjoy the formal dining like Normandie, and the United States on the M class ships, they are not my favorite. Each ship has its fine dining room with service and menu for a more refined experience. If you are in an Aqua class cabin you will dine in Blu, which I think is less formal but with a great menu.

Have a wonderful cruise, and absolutely enhance your planning in the Roll Call.

[deserttraveler]

Hi

 

 

- We have booked our Cruise already. When should we begin reserving the tours? Is there a way to get good deals on these through Celebrity?

 

 

- Any advice about specialty restaurants? Which ones are worth reserving in advance?

 

Thanks.

 

Larry

 

I took this cruise last year on the Silhouette and it was outstanding. Yes, do join your rollcall for more information about private tours. Celebrity never offers any "deals" on their excursions. (Their "packages" offer a slight discount, but you have to want to go exactly to the places they've packaged.)

 

In most of the ports, you don't need an excursion to have a wonderful time. If you enjoy walking, you can guide yourselves around Dubrovnik, Ravenna, Split, Kotor, Valletta, Catania, and Naples. (Ship will offer a shuttle bus to the center of Ravenna and to the gates of Dubrovnik.) At Koper, you can also have a lovely walk, but many people opt for tours to the interior of Slovenia, and here is where you might join up with some people on your roll call for a private tour that will cost less and involve a smaller group than the ship's excursion. And if you've not been to Naples before, your rollcall will probably include people organizing tours to Pompeii and/or the Amalfi coast, both extremely worthwhile. Privately organized tours are often 40-50% less cost than ship's excursions.

 

Also spend some time reading the ports of call boards (the ones with input from passengers on all cruise lines, not just Celebrity), and you'll hear about the places you're visiting from a lot of perspectives. There's an especially great strand on Dubrovnik in which a person who lives there answers questions (she may no longer be doing this, but the old Q and A should be there.) Here's the link to the forum that has most of the Adriatic ports: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=234

 

And as to specialty restaurants, I second the motion about Qsine. It's unique and fun for a special celebration.

[TMLAalum]

Hi Larry-

 

Suggestion # 1 would be to monitor your cruise prices faithfully. One way to do this is by adding your cruise to your favorites on the Celebrity website, or subscribe to notification sites which we cannot name per rules on this forum. You can get a price reduction before final payment or, after final payment move to a higher category for the same or slightly more cost. You do have to find out if perks you may have gotten at the time of your original booking will carry over, but do the math if a better price or cabin category becomes available.

 

Suggestion # 2 is to wait to board before booking specialty restaurants as there are often specials offered, especially on the 1st night. We've eaten at Qsine, Murano's and the Lawn Club and loved them all, but for Qsine you should dine with a few more people to sample more of their offerings.

 

Suggestion #3 echoes trying to DIY or join others on your roll call in "private tours". If you do choose Celebrity excursions, you might want to wait til you are on the ship to book if you have shipboard credit, which can be used to cover Celebrity excursions.

[suec12]

We did this cruise in Oct. on the Silhouette - it was great.

 

You might want to purchase the Rick Steves guide to Med. ports - this will give you info / walking tours of several of the main ports. Also very good logistics and suggestions on how to spend your limited time.

 

We did one small group tour with some friends in Split to tour Diocletian's palace - what an amazing site and the tour was very helpful as there were so many layers of history. The other ports we did on our own, several were repeats of places we had been before. I don't think Ravenna is in Rick's Med. ports book - you might want to check out his Italy guide from the library and copy out those pages for better understanding of the mosaics.

 

For sure, hook up with your roll call and I hope you are adding a few days at both ends for Venice and Rome unless you have already spent time in those cities.

 

I'd rather spend my monies on some nice lunches in port than in the speciality restaurants. IMO the MDR is just fine and has many selections. The speciality restaurants are a bit over the top for me - both in service (a bit slow and too attentive for me!) and amount / richness of food and I'd suggest you not go to Quisine as a party of two - way too much food (and I'm not a light eater by any measure!).

 

As I said, we loved this cruise - Malta was new to us and a pleasant surprise - the cathedral there is amazing (and we've seen many!). Sicily, so much to see, so little time!

Hope you have a wonderful time!