Remember that the cruise itinerary is a 13-Day Holy Land Cruise which includes 4 Sea Days. This is the first of four of them and it is also the first formal night. The cruise was uneventful. We simply relaxed on-board to get…Read More

Remember that the cruise itinerary is a 13-Day Holy Land Cruise which includes 4 Sea Days.

This is the first of four of them and it is also the first formal night.

The cruise was uneventful. We simply relaxed on-board to get prepared for the sites that we are about to see the next couple of weeks.

DRINK PACKAGES – I normally purchase a standard soda package since my wife and I like diet sodas during the cruise. This particular cruise had several drink packages… soda only package, bottle water only package, a "classic" non-alcohol beverage package, "premium" non-alcohol beverage package, "classic" alcohol beverage package and "premium" non-alcohol beverage package. Confusing isn’t it? Each package has varying per day pricing PLUS a 15% tip on top of that. For example, the classic non-alcohol beverage package includes all sodas (fountain and the entire can, standard bottle water (Italian brand bottle water as oppose to Evian brand) and all coffees (Lattes, café mochas etc) including the one in the Café Bacio (their version of Starbucks) for $13 per day + 15% tip which comes out to be $14.95 per day for a total trip of $194.35. OUCH! Well if you drink a lot of soda, frapuccinos, lattes and all sorts of premium coffee drinks, I guess this is worth it but that is A LOT to drink given that each soda costs $3 a pop plus each premium coffee like Latte’s etc. cost about $6 a pop, you do the math. If it works out, great then do so. If not, I don’t recommend it.

By the way, if you are trying to figure out when will Formal Nights be on the ship, it is the first 3 AT SEA days of the itinerary. The 2nd to the last Formal Night is lobster dinner night so don't miss it!!
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The cruise was uneventful. We simply relaxed on-board to get prepared for the sites that we are about to see the next couple of weeks. DRINK PACKAGES – I normally purchase a standard soda package since my wife and I like diet sodas…Read More

The cruise was uneventful. We simply relaxed on-board to get prepared for the sites that we are about to see the next couple of weeks.

DRINK PACKAGES – I normally purchase a standard soda package since my wife and I like diet sodas during the cruise. This particular cruise had several drink packages… soda only package, bottle water only package, a "classic" non-alcohol beverage package, "premium" non-alcohol beverage package, "classic" alcohol beverage package and "premium" non-alcohol beverage package. Confusing isn’t it? Each package has varying per day pricing PLUS a 15% tip on top of that. For example, the classic non-alcohol beverage package includes all sodas (fountain and the entire can, standard bottle water (Italian brand bottle water as oppose to Evian brand) and all coffees (Lattes, café mochas etc) including the one in the Café Bacio (their version of Starbucks) for $13 per day + 15% tip which comes out to be $14.95 per day for a total trip of $194.35. OUCH! Well if you drink a lot of soda, frapuccinos, lattes and all sorts of premium coffee drinks, I guess this is worth it but that is A LOT to drink given that each soda costs $3 a pop plus each premium coffee like Latte’s etc. cost about $6 a pop, you do the math. If it works out, great then do so. If not, I don’t recommend it.

By the way, if you are trying to figure out when will Formal Nights be on the ship, it is the first 3 AT SEA days of the itinerary. The 2nd to the last Formal Night is lobster dinner night so don't miss it!!
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Again, the port city name of where the ship will depart is Civitavecchia (pronounced Chi-tah-ve-kia) just in case you can't pronounce it and you get lost, you'll know how to pronounce it in Italian.After our panoramic tour of Rome, my wife and I were taken…Read More

Again, the port city name of where the ship will depart is Civitavecchia (pronounced Chi-tah-ve-kia) just in case you can't pronounce it and you get lost, you'll know how to pronounce it in Italian.

After our panoramic tour of Rome, my wife and I were taken directly to the port. It was very fast, easy and without incident. Checking-In is a breeze.

RECOMMENDATION: Celebrity offers online express check-in that allows you to pre-fill out forms etc. online without all that hassle when you get to the cruise terminal. If you don’t, expect a 30 minute check-in process. We did online express check-in and we check-in within 10 minutes. One thing to mention during checking-in is that they will check your passports and THEY WILL COLLECT THEM from you and you won’t see it until day Day 8 (Alexandria, Egypt). Don’t freak out! I overheard a couple of Americans just absolutely in arms about surrendering their passports which is silly. Given the fact that the itinerary included Turkey, ISRAEL and EGYPT, they are simply making it easier for you to get your Visas prepared. Yes, U.S. Citizens do require a visa in both Turkey and Egypt but the cruise ship will take care of it for you, hence the surrendering of your passport upon check-in. There is no cost to the visas. Just let the cruise handle it for you. They have done this a hundred times.

The ship left on-time at 6pm local time and we ate a wonderful dinner on-board in the dining room. We also saw their inaugural show at the Equinox Theater which was ok. I think it was geared towards the Boomers so my wife and I didn’t relate… (I’m a Gen X and my wife is Gen Y) but we expected it.
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The port which the ship leaves in is called Civitavecchia (pronounced Chi-tah-ve-kia) just in case you can't pronounce it and you get lost, you'll know how to pronounce it in Italian. We decided to purchase the Celebrity transfer because we didn’t want to get…Read More

The port which the ship leaves in is called Civitavecchia (pronounced Chi-tah-ve-kia) just in case you can't pronounce it and you get lost, you'll know how to pronounce it in Italian.

We decided to purchase the Celebrity transfer because we didn’t want to get have the hassle of trying to figure out train schedules, taking an expensive cab ride or even a private company’s transfer. From my research prior to the departing, it was my understanding the cheapest way is to take the train from Rome Airport (FCO) to Rome Termini Rail Station then to Civitavecchia (approximately a 40 minute drive from Rome) train station. From there you must find your way to the cruise ship from the train station. I hear there are shuttles from the train station to the ship from Civitavecchia terminal but I have not personally confirmed that. I hear you can walk to the station but given you have luggage good for a 13-night trip, it would be a hike with all that stuff with you. Therefore, I took the easy and a bit expensive route which is purchasing the ship board transfer for several reasons. 1) it’s guaranteed to get you to the ship on time. 2) When you get off the plane in FCO Rome, Celebrity cruise ship signs will be everywhere. 3) They will handle your luggage from the airport to your cabin without hassle especially after a grueling 9 hour flight.

I did purchase the optional panoramic tour of Rome with the transfer given that we were scheduled to arrive in Rome at 7:30am local time. I didn’t think going to Civitavecchia early and waiting there until boarding time of 2pm wasn’t ideal. I thought that maybe a good tour of Rome would give my wife and I time to see the city before boarding. Overall, I thought the panoramic tour was a bit of a waste. We did see the major sites (Colosseum, Old Roman Wall etc) but didn’t stop but only one place at Vatican City but only for about 45 minutes or so. It did not allow us enough time to purchase a ticket to see the site in detail nor the Vatican Museum (which I highly recommend to see). Also, taking photos on a moving bus wasn’t the best situation. Luckily, I have been to Rome a couple of times before. However, if you have not visited Rome before, I highly recommend doing a post cruise tour which I will go over in detail on Day 14 of this journal.
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You may have to do some research and Googling but PRIVATE TOURS – My opinion is that it is the BEST way to go. You combine the flexibility of independent traveling with a guaranteed itinerary with the comfort of personal service. Private tours…Read More

You may have to do some research and Googling but PRIVATE TOURS – My opinion is that it is the BEST way to go. You combine the flexibility of independent traveling with a guaranteed itinerary with the comfort of personal service. Private tours typically pick you up and drop you off at the cruise terminal with either a private car or van, with just a driver and a personal tour guide.

ADVANTAGES: 1) having a private tour guide is PHENOMENAL and the most recommended way to go. The guides are not only knowledgeable of the destination but will have everything pre-arranged for you before arrival from purchasing tickets in major sites to the hotel accommodations (if needed) and of course, since you are in a private car, you can get on and off the sites you want to see much faster than a big hulking bus through narrow streets. 2) Semi Flexible Itinerary - Most of the time, since you are in a private tour, you can request a last minute change of itinerary, for example or if you have extra time (which you will have), you can see even more of the destination if you request it. 3) You can ask as many questions or as little as you want and they will answer any and all your questions without worrying about 50 other people in the bus. In fact, most times, the guide will ask you what kind of information you want… history? Culture? Political? You name it and they will tailor their comments for you just like that. Unlike big group tours, they have to tell you stuff that is generally what the group wants to hear. 4) Having a personal guide gives you a bit more of a cultural experience because they tend to give you not only more information but also (once they get to know you) be able to customize the excursion a bit to your liking. For example, if the guide knows you are a bit squeamish on the local food, he or she will arrange for your meals to be in a hotel or more western in nature or vice versa. Or, if he or she feels you like to do more shopping then sightseeing, the guide can rearrange the itinerary to fit your needs. (I will go over private tours in my stop in Cairo during this journal).

DISADVANTAGES:
1. Though personally, I never had this happen, I've heard some reviews about private tours going awry because the guide doesn't speak very good English. That would really be bad and you are stuck with that guide the entire tour. Again, this has never happened to me so just so you know this can happen.

2. For the company I used for Cairo, the private tour company (Ramses Tours) only accepts cash basically. You can do travelers checks but they'll just take you to a bank to cash them for you and most places charges you to cash travelers checks. This means you'll be carrying a lot of cash around. The way around this is that I used the ship's ATM. After the tour, my wife ran back up to the ship, got onto the ATM and pulled enough cash and came back down to pay the guide. Most private tour companies who specializes in these types such as General Tours (generaltours.com), however, do take credit cards but will require payment up front.   Close

PORT PROMOTIONS – The online travel agency I work for offers shore excursions which is sponsored by a company called Port Promotions. Basically, the company offers pickup and return to the ship for each destination and guarantees your return to the ship on-time or…Read More

PORT PROMOTIONS – The online travel agency I work for offers shore excursions which is sponsored by a company called Port Promotions. Basically, the company offers pickup and return to the ship for each destination and guarantees your return to the ship on-time or they will arrange for you to catch up to the ship on their expense. (Either they fly you to the destination and put you up on hotels etc. to get you back on board the next port of call). They offer the same or similar popular organized tours for each destination. http://www.portpromotions.com/tvl/index.php

ADVANTAGES: 1) the biggest advantage is that they tend to have small group as oppose to the big buses of 50 people or so. Small groups of less than 20 people tend to keep schedules on-time, more personal service and it won’t be so crowded. 2) They tend to be cheaper (10 to 15% less especially if they are on-sale) or the same price as the cruise. Having a smaller group is a great advantage and I will detail to you my experience with them in Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey as you read on.

DISADVANTAGES: 1) Pricing – Unless you get a special offer from the online travel agency you work with (which you will get occasionally), price between Port Promotions and buying the excursion on the ship are pretty much the same. 2) You must purchase your excursion at least 3 days prior to the day you arrive at the destination. So unless you want to pay for online access on-board the ship (which ranges.45 to .65 per minute), I recommend booking them all ahead of time. 3) Not all excursions upon booking are automatically confirmed. In other words, once you book it, they will send you an email confirming that they have received your request but the actual excursion isn’t guaranteed to go unless a minimum number of people from either other passengers of your cruise or other cruise ship passengers order the same excursion with you. My guess is that the minimum number of confirmed passengers is 4. The only reason why I know that is because when I booked my Port Promotions excursion to Ephesus, Turkey, it was me, my wife and a Canadian couple on the same cruise ship and that was it. The number may vary but whatever that number is, once Port Promotions get the minimum number, they will send you another email confirming that the excursion is definitely a go. I believe they say that they will guarantee to let you know 2 to 3 days prior to you leaving for the cruise. So, worst case scenario, if they don’t get the guarantee your excursion is a go, you still have time to purchase the ship board excursion once you arrive.
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– Booking it is very easy. If you want to book it ahead of time prior to boarding, you can do so online or over the phone if you prefer. Online is easier… simply go through the cruise company website, pay the full…Read More

– Booking it is very easy. If you want to book it ahead of time prior to boarding, you can do so online or over the phone if you prefer. Online is easier… simply go through the cruise company website, pay the full amount and guarantee yourself a seat in the bus. Yes, you have to pay the entire amount of the excursion and if you need to cancel, you can cancel 48 hours prior to the excursion and you will get a credit back to the credit card you booked it with or a credit in your shipboard account. Doing it online will guarantees you a seat on the bus. Some popular excursions sell out and won’t be available online once a certain amount of seats are sold. For example, the tour I wanted to book in Athens was sold out 3 months prior to departure HOWEVER, I found that once on-board, and they will open it back up and add more seats or add buses.
PROS or ADVANTAGES: 1) Guaranteed seat on the bus 2) Guarantees you are going to return to the ship on-time. I doubt the cruise ship will leave 50 or so passengers behind especially if they are sponsoring the excursion. 3) NO HASSLE. It’s easy to book and very mindless. Just choose which tour and itinerary you want and go. Decide on board the ship if you want.
DISADVANTAGES: 1) They are going to be the most expensive way to go. I’ve checked pricing and ship board excursions compared to other companies online offering you the same itinerary and you will expect a 10 to 15% more expensive compared to similarly itineraries in city tours offered by Viator for example. Not all the time but most of the time so make sure you do your research prior. 2) Expect to be in big buses along with 50 other people. In fact, expect to be with the company of multiple buses. For example, in Athens, there were 20 buses of people from the same ship going to the same places so it gets a bit crowded. 3) Expect delays. Not all 50 people in your buses to be on-time. I have spoken to many guides to many destinations and I can tell you buses of 50 people or so is NEVER on-time because there is always 1 person getting lost or simply not respecting time of others etc. Again, I will go over one of these examples when I go over my Athens excursion in detail.
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ORGANIZED TOURS OR ESCORTED TOURS IN GENERAL - Now I’m one of those people that like organized tours for several reasons but the main reason is because one of the positions I held in Travelocity was to work with Escorted Tour operators like Trafalgar, Collette,…Read More

ORGANIZED TOURS OR ESCORTED TOURS IN GENERAL - Now I’m one of those people that like organized tours for several reasons but the main reason is because one of the positions I held in Travelocity was to work with Escorted Tour operators like Trafalgar, Collette, Globus, Cosmos, General Tours etc. and knowing each company and how it operates including how each of these organize tours for destinations across the board plus personally taking about a half dozen of them in the past, I believe until today that it is the most economical and overall easiest way to see the city or destination for the first time without wasting time. Now I know some of you like the idea of doing things on your own which is fine and applaud that. In fact, I know for a fact doing it independently does have its appeal because it does give you some unique memories as you figure your way through narrow streets yourself. But remember that doing it on your own have headaches on its own. 1) Wasting time finding your way through the city will inevitably get lost. Time, as you know (unless you are European that have 2 months of vacation, is short and valuable. Every minute you are not home is one more dollar out the window. 2) To get from place to place and to alleviate time, many people rely on taxis and are sometimes easy but sometimes expensive (especially if the cab driver isn’t very honest). 3) Doing public transportation gets a bit tricky especially if you don’t speak or read the language (like Israel and Egypt) plus you waste time finding schedules etc. 4) If you are arriving via cruise ship, some of the ports are not actually in the destination you want to see. As an example, Alexandria is a 3-hour car ride to Cairo then once you are within city limits, you have to fight the city traffic to get to the Giza Plateau where the Pyramids are so you risk wasting time enough to miss the ship (ouch!) 5) Having a tour guide telling you what you are seeing is a great thing especially for someone like me who is history or culture buff.
Now if you have already been to these cities and have visited before extensively, then I can see going independently since you know where to go etc. But for the new visitors like me, I preferred the organized tours.
Anyway, now that you know I prefer organized tours, let me go over the research I went through. First of, other than the on-board shore excursions they offer on the ship during or prior to the cruise, there are not many organized tour companies that are willing to pick you up at the cruise terminal for each location and bring you back on-time. Most of the tour companies like Viator for instance, picks you up at the city center (which means you have to find your way from the cruise terminal to a central meeting place which wastes time). The only other options are 1) The Shore Excursion desk of your ship 2) Port Promotions or similar company that my company works with or 3) Arrange a private tour for yourself. Let me tell you the pros and cons to each.
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For my 13-Night Holy Land Cruise on Celebrity Equinox (Oct. 5 Sailing), you're not just going to hang around the ship or just grab cabs from the port. Going to harder to reach places like Israel and Egypt tends to be a bit scary…Read More

For my 13-Night Holy Land Cruise on Celebrity Equinox (Oct. 5 Sailing), you're not just going to hang around the ship or just grab cabs from the port. Going to harder to reach places like Israel and Egypt tends to be a bit scary at first so I took the easy way out and decided to purchase a fairly luxurious cruise and arrange for organized tours. It isn’t the cheapest way but it is a "safe" way to go at the time I booked it. What I mean about "safe" - if you are reading this and you carry a U.S. Passport, the things you worry about is security, terrorist attacks, getting kidnapped, killed and so on. In fact, I was planning to take this cruise with a few of my friends but they backed out because they were scared of this same reason. I had all the same fears when I began, I promise you. However, as you read this detailed journal, you will find that all these fears are nothing more than bad information, rumors and over exaggeration.    Close

PREPARATION - 13-Night Holy Land Cruise on Celebrity Equinox (Oct. 5 Sailing)I’m not a rich guy and even though I work for one of the largest online travel agencies in the world, the common misconception is that we go on these trips for free.…Read More

PREPARATION - 13-Night Holy Land Cruise on Celebrity Equinox (Oct. 5 Sailing)

I’m not a rich guy and even though I work for one of the largest online travel agencies in the world, the common misconception is that we go on these trips for free. Well, that is simply not the case. We have to pay for all our personal trips and though you hear we get discounts, the majority of the discounts are off the RACK rates or the highest available retail rates so in most cases, the internet sale rates that any consumer can get online tends to be cheaper. I had to save up for more than 2 years for this trip and like any major investment; I wanted to make sure my entire trip is as flawless and as enjoyable as possible.
Given that, let me tell you that I began my research 14 months prior to the cruise and ended up paying my deposit ($250 per person) 11 months prior to departure to guarantee me the cabin that I wanted. Good thing I did because the ship did sell out two months prior to sailing. For airfare, I saved up enough reward miles to cover both my wife and I to go for "free" (not really since you pay airport taxes and fees which came up about $100 to $150 per person).
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