steverk

I love it when I'm on board a ship and people see another ship and wonder what it is. I check cruise mapper and then look carefully at the ship in the distance. I say something like "Hmm. Dark blue hull. Two blue funnels. Those could be "X" on the funnel. It's gotta be Celebrity Millenium." People leave so amazed!

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Jersey City. I Liked it, but it doesn't have a shuttle.

So Australians pay a foreign transaction fee when sailing on Royal out of Australia? That stinks! I did not expect that.

I do wish you luck. I've noticed the cabins popping in and out of availability. I think it is a small number of available cabins and a lot of people looking at them. Based on my experience, and a discussion at NextCruise, I believe Royal will take them out of available inventory when someone is doing a booking and selects the cabin. If they don't actually purchase, it returns to inventory after about 15 minutes.

I'm afraid there's not much you can do this close in. If you can find something it's going to be a left over room. That usually means interior at the end of the ship.

I'm not sure there is a perfect time of day for this. The schedule changes every day. Therefore what might interest people changes as well. My advice is to plan something and just make it work. Here are some considerations. 1. Do you have a set dining time? If so do you want to make that time or do you want to spring for specialty dining? 2. Do you want to work around an evening show? Normally there are either 2 shows about 7 and 9 or 1 at about 8, but this varies. 3. How long do you want the event to last? 4. Do you need to reserve a venue for this or are you ok with finding a quiet spot in one of the lounges?

I like both Victoria and Sitka. In Victoria I walked to town and watched the boat ballet in the harbor. It was fun. I didn't have a lot of time, so walking around is about all I did. Sitka has some interesting stuff to do on your own. I've visited some museums, native history shows, the raptor center and the totem pole park. All were worthy experiences. If you're looking for something more adventurous, I'm sure there's options, but I'm not the person to ask.

There's two areas where you can pick up. When you exit the terminal, you will be in the main pickup area. If you turn right and follow around the building, you'll pass the uber/lyft pickup area and then there will be another pickup area. In my experience, the 2nd area is quicker, but not dramatically quicker. Both have numbers posted on the pillars to help you find your party. The bad news is they didn't number the areas with unique numbers, so there's a number 1, 2, 3... in both areas.

I've got an odd question. I'm going on my first Australia cruise in February. I want to avoid foreign transaction fees on my credit card. Will the on board charges go through an Australian or American credit card processor?

I find it very odd that you wouldn't. I have a Celebrity cruise in February that ends in Auckland. I booked Air2Sea back to the US. It was booked as a United flight but operated by Air New Zealand.

You get the picture wide screen. It's worth a few extra bucks. Normally that's what it works out to be. A few dollars more than other bookings

The benefits of booking air 2 sea are no payment until final payment date. Refundable until paid and help if anything goes wrong. The last one has saved my bacon more than once.

I've booked air2sea several times. Bags are never included on domestic (USA) or Caribbean flights. However 1 bag was included on my Australian flight.

I spoke to someone that did this on every cruise. I'm not sure what the rules are, but she said she would ask the attendant what he/she would like and then she would leave it in a specified location in the stateroom. She tells me it always disappears.

The trip is about 90 minutes, but I can't speak to uber from the port as I live locally and have never used one

As mentioned earlier, 4 per day. Use or lose. But you can go to a bar at the end of each day and get bottles or cans of your favorite beverage and bring them to your room.

@shaburr not to be negative, but there are activities the occur in the centrum. 4560 will probably be noisy.

Probably not. Radiance may be a smaller ship, but she's still large. Therefore, the motion probably won't be as bad as you fear. Further, being able to see outside doesn't help me very much. Since this is your first cruise, do come prepared. Ginger tablets or other motion sickness meds might make sense, although I've never needed them.

I like 4016 for its location on the ship rather than the view. It's quiet yet close to forward elevators. The midship elevators and dining room are on the same side so it's convenient for that as well.

I was watching Don's Family Vacations on YouTube yesterday an he discussed this. According to his recent experience, the visa application requires a bank statement with at least $1000 balance and you must be employed. It wasn't evident how a retiree would apply.

I agree it doesn't make much sense. Buy gasoline and the posted price includes tax. Buy a roast beef sandwich and you pay tax.

If you can afford the upgrade, room 4016, ocean view window, is a great location and still affordable.

Keep in mind that diamond, diamond plus and Pinnacle all status match as elite. Therefore, if you are diamond and want to sail celebrity, you might as well just do that. There isn't any advantage in waiting for diamond plus.

I've had similar problems with the website lately. My advice: wait 15 minutes after canceling. If it still won't let you book it, call royal. Btw I've had excursions that wouldn't canceling, but I received my refund. Royal insists the reservation is still active. We'll find out when I get on board

I hope they don't make it into a revenue model. I like it just the way it is