Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, and Suez Canal Cruise in 50 days

In 50 days, I will board a beautiful ship in Barcelona that will visit Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, and pass thru the Suez Canal.  At the end of the cruise, I will spend 2 nights in Dubai.  Petra, Luxor, and Dubai will be new to me. 

Here is the itinerary of this 16-day, repositioning cruise:

16 nights departing October 26, 2012 on
Celebrity's Celebrity Solstice

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Fri Oct 26 Barcelona, Spain 6:00pm Sat Oct 27 At Sea Sun Oct 28 At Sea Mon Oct 29 At Sea Tue Oct 30 Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt 6:00am Wed Oct 31 Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt 6:00pm Thu Nov 1 Suez Canal, Egypt (Cruising) 6:00am 8:00pm Fri Nov 2 Luxor (Safaga), Egypt 8:00am Sat Nov 3 Luxor (Safaga), Egypt 8:00pm Sun Nov 4 Petra (Aqaba), Jordan 7:00am 6:00pm Mon Nov 5 At Sea Tue Nov 6 At Sea Wed Nov 7 At Sea Thu Nov 8 At Sea Fri Nov 9 At Sea Sat Nov 10 At Sea Sun Nov 11 Dubai, United Arab Emirates 6:00am

Celebrity Cruises--What I like about them

Celebrity Cruises What I like:

Excellent customer service—they go above and beyond to:

--Add that extra touch (hand you cold towels in gym and when re-boarding from port visit, hand you sorbet by pool)

--Red carpet return to ship (hot chocolate, cold towels, cold beverages, hot soup etc) Pre-port visit coffee/pastries deck 4

--Resolve issues vs. defend and recite company policy

--They asked for feedback on how to improve service on THIS cruise before waiting till the end

Celebrity Equinox-Solarium

High energy, creative, variety of shipboard activities: wellness, enrichment, culinary, entertainment, lawn club, glass blowing show and more.  100s of activities on TA.  Passengers were fully engaged

Friendly, help staff. Everyone smiles and they all say hello

Spa Café-healthy dining

Solarium

Food is very good.  Nice presentation.  Seafood buffet. No need for steak knives here—meat is always tender.

Made to order stir-fry, pizza, eggs, pasta, burgers, Caesar salad, ice cream sundaes, crepes, fish, and more.

Officers interact with guests.  Pool volleyball contest, slot games, poker challenge, ping pong contests, dance contests, chefs cook-off etc.

Onboard future booking program-$100 deposit; 3 category upgrades, OBCs, fully refundable

Ship is beautiful elegant and clean.  (They are CONSTANTLY cleaning!)

Staff doesn’t point to things; they take you there.

Only 1 daily announcement, at noon, from captain

Not in your face trying to heavy sell

Passengers: happy, friendly, polite, well-traveled

Newspapers in multiple languages

Great free, contemp  movie choices and taped shows on TV.  MSNBC

Expanded room service menu

Decent exchange rate and no fees

The coffee

From my Celebrity Equinox Transatlantic and Easter Mediterranean (25-day) Back-to-back cruises April 16-May 11, 2012

Zumba Classes

Thriller Dance lessons and performances

Equinox cast in nightly shows

Port lectures

Games

Solarium

Spa Café

Stir Fry

The Food in main dining room

The ocean café

Aft Deck-outdoors-Ocean Café

Lawn Club

Swimming Pool

Interesting Loungers in pool area

Gym towels, Cold towels

Quasar

Karaoke

Comedian, Juggler, Magician and other entertainers

The friendly, helpful staff

Beautiful ship

Line Dancing, Ballroom dancing

Welcome back to the ship red carpet service

Glass elevator

Cookies

M&Ms on ice cream sundae bar

Room service menu

Cologne/perfume shop—little room off side

7-country, 12-night Russia & Scandinavia cruise on Aug 24-Sept 5, 2012:

In 50 days, I will take a 7-country, 12-night Russia & Scandinavia cruise.   Of note, I took this same cruise on NCL two years ago.  I will use the same great tour companies for visits to St Petersburg and Berlin.

12 nights departing August 24, 2012 on Celebrity's Celebrity Constellation
ITINERARY
DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Fri Aug 24 Amsterdam, Holland 4:30pm Sat Aug 25 At Sea Sun Aug 26 Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany 9:30am Midnight Mon Aug 27 At Sea Tue Aug 28 Tallinn, Estonia 10:00am 5:00pm Wed Aug 29 St. Petersburg, Russia 7:00am Thu Aug 30 St. Petersburg, Russia 6:00pm Fri Aug 31 Helsinki, Finland 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Sep 1 Stockholm, Sweden 9:00am 4:00pm Sun Sep 2 At Sea Mon Sep 3 Copenhagen, Denmark 10:00am 6:00pm Tue Sep 4 At Sea Wed Sep 5 Amsterdam, Holland 5:00am