Jill
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Posts posted by Jill
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On 11/22/2023 at 11:47 PM, Rackham said:
I won't speculate on the benefits, but I'm willing to bet Celebrity's point system will triumph since it rewards booking more expensive cabins. In this scenario, existing C&A points would be converted so that no one would lose status; similar to the last time Royal changed how points are earned.
I was referring more towards the benefits. I want my 5 drinks anytime, anywhere lol
Also my free internet and free 8x10
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4 hours ago, JasonOasis said:
Europe 2025 is already on sale for Celebrity. I saw a few cruises that peak my interest including a 14 night arctic circle/Norway cruise and several Mediterranean cruises. My first ever Celebrity cruise will take place next year on Apex, I'm not yet totally ready to abandon Royal but I'm seriously tempted to book that arctic circle/Norway cruise.
I really wanted that Arctic circle/fjords but just couldn’t swing 12 nights. Doing Apex June 2025 to fjords though so excited because it’s way better than what Royal was offering
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I’m breaking in a new TA from MEI as my old one, who I love dearly, will be “retiring” in 2025. I wanted to stay with MEI so she got me in with a new one for our fjords cruise in 2025 with Celebrity. 4 couples and she got us in a group booking that saved us over $800 per couple compared to booking ourselves
I normally book my own cabin online, then transfer it to the agent. Covid and the whole FCC mess earned my agent a set of Angel wings and a halo!
We’re starting to check off those bucket list cruises and several are out of Europe and I want an agent here at home that can help me if things go sideways
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She was our first Royal ship back in 1991. Saw her last year in Santorini and Turkey.
Just read this on Facebook:
CELESTYAL OLYMPIA; THE END?
Celestyal Cruises has finally confirmed the rumour that first broke surface roughly a week back; the Greek niche operator has purchased the 2003 built, 42,000 ton Aidaaura to replace the 1982 built, 38,000 ton Celestyal Olympia on the line's short, port intensive programme of three and four day cruises out of Piraeus.
In terms of a hardware upgrade, there's no denying that this is a pretty astute move. The 'new' ship- to be renamed as the Celestyal Discovery- is an ideal complement to the recently acquired, 55,000 ton Celestyal Journey. That ship will continue to operate the schedule of longer, seven night cruises in the Aegean theatre.
The soon to be Celestyal Discovery brings a whole raft of 'firsts' to the table. As well as the mainstream, conventional dining options, the ship will also showcase a Grillseekers' speciality restaurant, together with a bespoke Sozo Health and Wellness centre. Complementing this will be a Greek Deli and Fig and Honey Gelato juice bar.
Celestyal cites that the ship will also offer a 'few surprises' when she enters service in March 2024, after a multi million dollar refit that will also enhance some elements of the Celestyal Journey, a ship originally built in 1994 as Holland America Line's Ryndam.
In terms of the 633 cabins on board the Celestyal Discovery, a total of 62- around ten per cent- have private balconies. The average inside rooms come in at around 135 square feet. While not big, these are perfectly adequate for the short, port intensive cruise schedule that the remodelled ship will be offering.
Whether or not some current cabins might be 'opened up' with the addition of new, external balconies- such as was done with the now retired Celestyal Crystal- remains to be seen.
Passengers on the new ship are also gaining quite a bit of elbow room. The 42,000 ton Celestyal Discovery can accommodate a maximum of 1, 266 passengers. Her 38,000 ton predecessor could cater for 1, 660, though technically she tended to 'max out' at around 1, 400 as a rule.
If the 'new' ship simply inherits the exact sailing pattern of the Celestyal Olympia, then the typical schedule will run as follows;
Three night sailings depart from Piraeus on Friday mornings. These call into Mykonos for a few hours that same evening.
On Saturday, the ship calls into the Turkish port of Kusadasi until around noon, then makes a roughly five hour call into Patmos, leaving the island at around nine in the evening.
Sunday morning has the ship in the Cretan port of Heraklion until around noon, before a final, show stopping call into Santorini in early afternoon. Again, this call occupies roughly five hours. The ship returns to Piraeus early Monday morning.
Four night sailings depart on Monday morning, and follow more or less exactly the same schedule as the three day trips. The major difference is a full, eight hour call into Rhodes each Wednesday, on day three of each circuit.
While the Celestyal Discovery is an exciting new step forward for the Celestyal brand, there will be more than a bit of sadness at the departure of the Celestyal Olympia from the scene. The ship, built for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line as the Song of America back in 1982, will be 42 years old next year. Most likely, she has sailed her last, commercial passenger voyage. A new buyer for such an old, amenity and balcony cabin lite ship seems sadly unlikely.
As new, the Song of America was the first RCCL ship to feature a full, wrap around 'Viking Crown' lounge, cantilevered around her funnel. Her 'cabins forward, public rooms aft' layout- and, indeed, her entire external appearance- made her a bit of a 'mini me' prototype for the subsequent, wildly successful 'Sovereign' class trio. Ironically, the only surviving member of that three ship class is now laid up at Perama, just outside of Piraeus.
The Celestyal Olympia was a delight to sail on, and I was lucky enough to do so more than once. None the less, Celestyal- like any other exemplar of contemporary hospitality- has to look forwards, and not back. Modern comfort and environmental concerns anticipate nothing less in this day and age.
The Celestyal product overall is consistent, solid, and warmly welcoming. There is just so much that seems inherently sensible in savouring the Greek Islands on a Greek ship, suffused with the sense of hospitality and style that is so intrinsically Greek.
Here's wishing the new Celestyal Discovery all the very best, as she becomes the proud new bearer of the mantle gifted to her by her beloved forebear
Photo of the Celestyal Olympia is the copyright of Anthony Nicholas
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We’ve decided on Apex. Just waiting to hear back from the TA. I was doing some mock bookings on Apex and they’re obviously holding cabins back because it would only show one cabin available in each category. Hope it’s not already gone! We do have Indy on hold but I’m not thrilled with it.
- Plasticbrain, Linda R and PPPJJ-GCVAB
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Anyone have any thoughts on these 3? Already have Indy on hold. Celebrity just released theirs. Amsterdam is very tempting but I’m interested in Geiranger Apex) and apparently Alesund (Indy) is very close to Geiranger.
Any thoughts on flying into UK versus Amsterdam (from east coast). Have flown into LHR before and don’t mind terminating there but don’t want to connect out of there.
Indy and Eclipse are basically the same price. Apex about $600 more.
4 couples, early to late 50’s, like to have fun, enjoy night time entertainment.
Thanks for any suggestions!
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It means she’s going to dry dock before starting her Mediterranean summer.
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3 hours ago, Kathleen said:
I ended up booking a 9 night Spain/Portugal balcony cabin on Independence out of Southampton with refundable deposit for September 2025 for just under $3000 including taxes and port fees total for the both of us, from our travel agent. Seemed like a win/win at this point. Was glad to grab what seemed such a good deal.
I’ve got $2810 for hubby and me “on hold” for Norwegian Fjords June 2025. Balcony. Waiting for celebrity to release then name a decision.
I thought that price was very fair but flights might do us in lol
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My icon UDP was $70 more than what I paid a year ago. Hideaway Beach is $10 less total so not rebooking it for that small amount. That’s all I’ve bought for icon. Being D+ we don’t buy drink or internet packages anymore and I book private excursions on the islands.
Utopia next October we don’t plan on any buying anything as we’re doing a sky class JS. We possibly will buy the new restaurant on Deck 4 or see if we can use our BOGO. I have a feeling that restaurant will be excluded from the BOGO
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9 minutes ago, Ray said:
You will love Budapest and the Christmas Market, i was there last year for 4 nights and didn't want to leave
We’re excited! 12 of us going. We’re sailing along the Danube with an overnight in Vienna. Also Krems, Passau, Regensburg. Then taking train to Prague for 3 nights. Should be epic! (And cold!)
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6 minutes ago, teddy said:
I totally understand this.
Flight costs to Europe were/are a big conversation for us. We have two upcoming cruises from Southampton, one in the fall of 2024 and now one in the fall of 2025. The unknown for 2025 flights is a bit unnerving. Luckily, it's just the two of us now. When all three boys were young, vacations were a lot different. Thankfully we discovered Europe after they all grew up and left home.
We booked our flights to Italy for last month's cruise 10 months out, and the prices only got more expensive as time went on. We are now 11 months out from the 2024 cruise and hemming and hawing about whether to book now or wait. One thing in our favor is we can fly non-stop to LHR from Boston.
Something we decided before booking that European cruise in 2025 is that if the flight prices become ridiculous, we will eat the $100 pp change fee and cruise from somewhere closer. Again, we are lucky that it's just the two of us now, so the (potential) change fees are easy enough to put in the budget since it's almost two years away.
I hope you can find easy and reasonable flights for 2024.
This is making me queasy lol
Have a Viking river cruise next December out of Budapest (Christmas Markets) and I just realized flights will likely be released soon. I could use Viking Air for $899. May have to seriously look at that. I know the flights won’t be ideal though. It’s either pay through the nose or be inconvenienced
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Debating if I should just go ahead and book Indy to the fjords or hold out for Celebrity next week.
Amsterdam port schedule for June 2025 is showing Brilliance and Celebrity Eclipse several times as well as Indy (as a port stop). **edit: just saw that Brilliance will be out of Athens summer 2025. Guess Amsterdam is already limiting ships. Was hoping for a celebrity out of Amsterdam
Not super thrilled with Indy although I’ve known she’d be out of Southampton for awhile now.
Tempted to put a refundable deposit down then see what Celebrity has next week
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Anyone have any scoop on which celebrity ships will be out of UK, Amsterdam/Rotterdam? I do see Eclipse out of Amsterdam but not sure if that’s just a port stop or port of origin.
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8 hours ago, cedricmr said:
Thanks @AndyPandy
Finally, it's not Odyssey. Do you know what ship will be in Amsterdam ?
Looking at Amsterdam port schedule, it’ll be Brilliance. Won’t let me copy link. Go here: cruiseportamsterdam.com
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7 hours ago, smokeybandit said:
That Northern Cities Escape looks tempting if the price is right.
What’s that itinerary?
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Just got off Allure this morning, her first 4 night Bahamas run. I was a little concerned about finding parking in T1 garage as Wonder cars were already there. (Indy had left to homeport in Miami).
One thing that irked us was they make you drive into lower level, merge with luggage drop off people then finally go up the ramps. We were carryon only so really wanted to just enter and go up. They really should consider letting people go directly up that aren’t checking luggage. It just adds more congestion.
Garage didn’t open until 9:30. Plenty of spaces up on level 3. Never saw the surface lots this morning. Wasn’t paying attention
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18 hours ago, TXcruzer said:
Her 2020 Drydock was cancelled
She still had mechanical dry dock in 2020 so she’s due in 2025. Her Amp was cancelled
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On allure now. Heard 2025 for her dry dock (last was 2020). Hope they upgrade her but leave the slides off. Been so nice without all those ugly slides. Lol
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2 hours ago, Matt said:
Wow!
Which ship and sail date is this for?
I'm cruising tomorrow on Allure, no such option
On Allure now. Our first time on her. We love her and you’d never know she’s as old as she is. She looks great! Food has been really good in chops, 150 and Izumi. Tonight is Samba. I love this old style solarium. Had to visit this Crown Lounge simply due to location. Concierge was very helpful with a leaking cooler bag situation. Had a new one delivered last night.
Weather has been surprisingly good until today. Literally sitting still off Freeport. Extremely windy.
Have fun!
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On 1/26/2023 at 10:34 AM, Bruno said:
Anyone know if we can change the beer? Not a big fan of bud light.
Reporting back on our experience today on Allure. Went to a pool bar where a white shirt was behind the bar. Initially he said no. Asked if we brought these onboard (what?). He clearly didn’t know about these bags. He still said we couldn’t switch the Bud light for corona. Hubby was not happy! White shirt called someone else and he finally let us change them out.
I went into the cruise planner afterwards and this is on the bud light page. I suggest screen shooting it to show that you absolutely can substitute for something similar
Empire Supper Club is available for booking
in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Posted
Just for fun I just checked for our April icon. Every night still available. If there’s still space once we board, we might consider it at $130 p/p with UDP.