Venice - Staying or Going Home

Another big decision we all need to make is whether to stay over in Venice at the end of the trip. Here is a satellite picture of Venice. I think that most of the ships dock on those two little arms in the left of the picture (at the beginning of the word Dorsodoro).

One of the regular posters on Cruise Cruitic, the Halls also went to Venice (among other places). You might want to check out their website. Here is their description of their arrival in Venice:

The ship did offer a shuttle to the hotels in the St. Mark's area. Your bags traveled in a different shuttle and were delivered to your hotel...

The choice we made was to book a private transfer from IC Bellagio through our Travel Agent. We were met right at the terminal, and took a private taxi tour of the Grand Canal en route to our hotels. We dropped the bags at the hotel, and then the water taxi took us on a tour of the "undiscovered" canals of Venice, including the Armory where the great galleys were built. After that we had a 2 hour walking tour of the back ways of Venice with a great guide, winding up at our hotel...

Many of the hotels we looked at are not far from St. Marks Square or in the Dorsodoro which is one section of the city south of the Grand Canal (sort of where the end of the word falls on the picture) and is very nice and quiet. Alex said she is looking at the Savoia Jolanda . It gets an pretty good review from Trip Advisor (search for Venice hotels). The prices go from $287 (US dollars) for a room with no view to $445 room with a view. Contact Alex if you need more help with this part of your trip. Here are links to other hotels in the city:

• Pensione Calcina (Dorsodoro) - Double (2 people) with a view €143-165 (about €70-85 per person per night) . This place is very popular and also has a separate building with some apartments.
• Hotel American (Dorsodoro) - Double with canal view €180, Triple €180, Quadruple €220 (about €90 per person per night)
• Hotel Flora (near St. Marks) - Superior Double room , 3 nights, €620 (about €210 per night, about €105 per person per night).
• Hotel Metropole (on other side of St. Marks) - per night standard Double € 210,00 - € 500,00, Deluxe Double € 280,00 - € 580,00, Junior Suite € 400,00 - € 800,00, Lagoon View € 400,00 - € 800,00 (about €110 per person per night to €250 per person per night)
• Locanda Vivaldi (near Metropole) -per night Double Standard room, €190, Double Superior room Lagoon view, €260, Junior Suite, €290, extra bed, €50 (assuming Superior room, about 130 per person per night).
• Hotel Saturnia (between St. Marks & Rialto Bridge) - €288 per night for standard double room, 345 Superior room, 396 for triple (about €140-150 per person per night).

Have you decided whether to stay in Venice? How long? Have you made reservations yet?

BEST EXCHANGE RATE FOR DOLLAR TO EURO?

Just got a call from a fellow cruiser, Diane and she had inquired about what was her option to get the best exchange rate for dollar to euro? If I recall on my last trip to Europe, we did every purchase that we could by credit card and the minimal cash that we had we got from American Express Travel Services or was it Auto Club? Either source would work.

As for the amount of Euro you would need? That depends on what you would like to purchase. On the Celebrity cruise ship - you will need a credit card as the ship operates on a cashless system validating your Visa/Master, American Express Card or you will need to sign for payment by cash or traveler's check to your personal Celebrity Sea Pass. For Restaurants and boutiques in port, I recommend you use credit cards. You can also get Euros through an ATM (available on the ship and in ports at a bank) but be aware that you might have a service charge. The amount you need? Good question! Traveler's checks can be cashed for your convenience - Euros? Small stuff for taxis, tips and shopping at the local farmers market comes to my mind. Checkout Rick Steve’s Money 101 for additional tips.

Also, most European ATM’s require a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for all your credit cards. So be sure you check with the credit card institution for this number that is linked to the card you will be using.

Lastly, let your credit card institution know that you will be traveling so that you won’t have any issues while you are buying that Murano Glassware in Venice! I checked the internet and came up with this link. Does any one have any other options for Diane?

First Port of Call - Villefranche

Our first port of call is Villefranche, France, which is the gateway to the Cote d'Azur and Provence. Villefranche is a small town and like so many of our ports require that you take some sort of transportation from the port just to see the more famous sites. This is one of the few ports where we are tendered (which means taking a boat into the town), possibly a more time consuming process than strolling off the gangplank. Also see the port review on Cruise Critic.

From Villefranche you can take the train to Nice or Monte Carlo. This guy has a great step-by-step explanation of how to find the train station here. I think this might be a nice port to just wander on our own. Take the train to Nice and walk around.

The most famous market of Nice is the flower market and main market on the Cours Saleya in the old town. On Mondays, (when we will be there) the Cours Saleya has a large flea market, the Marché a la Brocante et Antiquités. In the picture the market is the street with the colorful awnings (2 rows from the beach). It ends at the Ville Matisse. Also I can just imagine strolling along the Promenade Anglais.

So what do you want to do in Villefranche? Take off for Monaco, Cannes, Eze, St. Paul d'Vence? Some - all?

Photo from Flickr user Tony M.

AIR FARE MAY STILL BE AVAILABLE

Thanks Alex for taking care of our 40 cruise guests on this wonderful air fare deal that I posted on February 4th. For those guests still needing air transportation to Europe, Alex told me she's still may be able to get this fare. Best to check in with her ASAP! Roger and I will look forward to seeing you at LAX on October 29th!

FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES!

Okay, so now you have paid your cruise deposit, the check for the travel insurance has been posted by Alex and an assigned stateroom is reserved. So you ask, “What’s Next”? Well, if you recall the cruise ship is in Europe, which means you need to get to Barcelona, Spain to set sail. After the cruise, our ship will be dropping us off in the port of Venice, Italy. Roger and I are staying two nights in Barcelona prior to our cruise and for our post cruise we are staying three nights in Venice. Check our itinerary at the bottom of the page for details of what we are are doing!

This might be a good time to start thinking of what you would like to do as well. I have been told by some of our guests, like Kelly, Buzz & Karen V, George and Sue Y that they have booked their air transportation through their miles. Others such as Russell C and Randy H have been researching the internet and came up with their own discounted airfares which also included an upgrade to Business Class. Don’t forget about your ground transfer between the airport and/or hotel/cruise port, we don’t want you to miss the boat!

Lastly, remember that Alex Kuncio (contact info listed on the right) can help you with the Celebrity Cruise Line Air Arrangements as well as their pre & post ‘Sea & Stay’ program which allows you to extend your vacation in Barcelona and Venice. Hope you have a minute to share and post your successful airfare tips and tricks that might work for your other co-cruisers!

THANK YOU CAROL & KAY!

Special thanks go out to Carol and Kay T for notifying Alex that our Celebrity Mediterranean Cruise on November 1st has been discounted. They found this incredible information through one of the cruise website which by the way benefits all of us. Great Job!

Alex stated to me that she will be making an adjustment in our invoice. But as Kay had stated in her last posting, Celebrity with all other cruise line have all jumped in to add a per day fuel surcharge that may effect our pricing as well. So it may well be a wash!

If you see a discount specific to our cruise sail date. Please contact Alex so she can confirm this information with Celebrity. Every little bit helps! Thanks again Carolyn and Kay!

Fuel Surcharge and Fare Reduction!

In cruising news, did you hear about the fuel surcharge? It looks like Celebrity is jumping on the bandwagon to charge more because of the high cost of fuel. It is $5 per day per person, up to a maximum of $70.

On the other hand, I also heard about a price reduction for our cruise. It is from $150-200 per person price cut. On January 10, I received an e-mail from Alex, our travel agent, as follows:

Thanks for the heads up on the price reduction. I've adjusted everyone's reservation to reflect the decrease. Your rate went down $150 per person. I'll send out a new statement reflecting this. Hope you had a Happy New Year!

So, we will not be charged more and in fact may see some reduction on that balance due!!

DON’T DELAY • YOUR PASSPORT IS MANDATORY FOR OUR CRUISE!

With the new USA regulations to implement Passports as travel identification, I can’t help but to encourage you to DOUBLE CHECK your passport expiration date and to APPLY for a passport TODAY if you haven't already!

Last year, I had to assist my girlfriend’s college daughter in getting a new passport because her passport did not have the valid 6 month window for her travel period. The waiting period was unrealistic for our needs (long wait) and the last minute ordeal & stress was truly not a way to start off a trip. There are agencies that can expedite your passport process. But, it will COST YOU. So my suggestion is GET IT NOW and save your dollars for that fabulous souvenir.

PASSPORTS are REQUIRED FOR CRUISE TRAVEL to all International destinations. Additionally, Passports must be valid for at least six months after the last day of travel.

For information about obtaining a passport for the first time, or about renewing a passport, click here to visit the U.S. Department of State's Web site.

Barcelona Hotel Info

After you have made your airline reservations, one of our first decisions has to be where to stay in Barcelona. We asked our travel agent, Alex, for some hotels and she offered to make reservations at:

Claris Hotel €306/night. Not sure if that included breakfast.

Note: There is a link to a euro converter on the right panel of the blog if you want to see how many dollars a euro equals!

Fira Palace - $396/night (this looks like a VERY nice place), includes breakfast

Hotel Barcelona Center - $278/night, this also looks nice although I could not find pictures of the rooms, includes breakfast

For other hotels, here are some that are recommended on Trip Advisor:

Hotel Granados 83 which was about 182 euros. Not sure if that included breakfast.

Hotel Pulitzer which was about 195 euros ($285/night). Not sure if that included breakfast.

Any other suggestions for hotels?

As far as getting from the airport to any hotel, Alex reports that grabbing a taxi at the airport in Barcelona is probably cheaper than arranging a transfer and that "taxis run approximately 25 Euros. From the hotel to the pier is quite close and should be about half that price. Embarkation begins at 4pm and Celebrity has sailing time at 7pm presently."

GREAT AIRFARE PRICES!

Hot off the press! Just got word today that Alex had some great airfare prices to Europe! Economy/Coach round-trip to Europe was $730 per person from LAX. The Celebrity Cruise Line Air Program that was quoted to be guaranteed till November 1st 2007 on our invite flyer was $1,308.90.

So, if you still need a flight to meet the cruise ship. Here's a lead! But don't delay, not sure how long it's good for. Contact Alex directly if interested.

Bon Voyage!

Thanks, Diana, for the intro. This will be only my second cruise, but I have travelled in Europe before, and I am really having fun planning this trip. I am travelling with three other friends -- a girlfriends trip -- and of course all of you! Our group is Judy, Carol (or Carolyn), Lesley and me!

Part of the planning for this trip will be whether we take the ship shore excursions or private excursions or go it on our own. To help with the planning I have found a great website, called Cruise Critic, that is a site all about cruises, which has details about different ports of call, and bulletin boards where people can talk about different issues. Here is the link to the Cruise Critic boards. If you join the site you can also post in the Roll Call area where people from specific cruises can chat and make plans together. I am posting on there as Cruising Blue, and there are a couple of other groups posting about our specific cruise. My favorite part of the site so far is the Virtual Cruise where people write in detail about what they did on their cruise. There are at least two about the Mediterranean (not our specific cruise, but some of the same ports).

Also Diana mentioned Cruise Diva as another website with info. Another great site if you are looking at hotels or info on a particular city is Trip Advisor. We have links to some of these sites down on the right side of this blog.

Please feel free to make a comment on any post about your plans or suggestions for the cruise (or for the blog)! There is a link down on the right side to e-mail Diana, Roger, or me directly.

And as Diana said, Welcome!

CRUISE CONCIERGE

Before we go any further about our cruise, I want to introduce you to Kay Tindel. Kay is my new friend and hopefully soon to be yours as well! Kay has graciously accepted to be my partner/editor on this blog site that she has created. Didn’t she do a fabulous job! We hope to create an avenue for sharing information & resources, displaying announcements and creating enthusiasm as we journey together on our Mediterranean Cruise. Kay will be attending the cruise with us and has traveled previously to some of the countries we will be visiting. If you think you have some information that may benefit the group please contact either of us for consideration in placing this information on our blog or feel free to just post a comment.
Again Welcome Aboard Diana

CELEBRITY CRUISE BROCHURE - EUROPE 2008

Did you get your 2008 Celebrity Cruise Brochure? I had forwarded our entire guest list to Alex Kuncio at Innovative Travels (telephone, address and email listed on the right) to request that the new 2008 Europe Celebrity Cruise Brochure be sent to you directly. If you did not get one, please email Alex at Innovative Travel or you can also go on line at Celebrity Cruise to order your brochure.