Wansbrough's Cruise Blog

Celebrity Silhouette Pre Cruise – Hotel Tiziano – Venice

We have selected the Hotel Tiziano – Venice as our pre cruise hotel for next years cruise on the Celebrity Silhouette. This hotel has some really decent reviews and is away from the main tourist areas but near enough to the cruise terminal to be able to walk to. The Hotel Tiziano is an old house from the IVXth century, which was completely restored in the 2003.
It is situated in the quiet Dorsoduro district, close to the Church San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, one of the oldest and prettiest in the town.

Blackberry Playbook – A new gadget for the blog.

Recently, I noticed that Blackberry had reduced the price of their Playbook quite considerably so I succumbed to temptation and went out and bought one. The Playbook is a 7″ tablet which was first released to the world in April 2011 and I had high hopes it being a real asset for posting to the blog, especially as it has a mini USB port which I had assumed would enable me to plug my camera directly into it and use to transfer photos from it instead of the ones from my ailing Blackberry Torch. It also has a nice big screen which should make it easier to check the quality of the photos.

Unfortunately this wasn’t to be the case. The only immediate option to add photos to the Playbook was via the Blackberry Desktop Manager which involves using a computer. Not what I was hoping for and not any good when you are out and about. After doing much research, I discovered a possible work round which I have yet to try out. It involves using a SD card for the camera which has built in WiFi, it is called an Eye-Fi memory card.When in your camera, it enables you to link directly with you PC or tablet and transfer the photos across. There is even the facility to use “direct mode” which will transfer the pictures across even if you are not near a hotspot.

I have also installed a WordPress app for the Playbook after anticipating that it would be the same format as on the Blackberry Torch which is really easy to use. It is similar but sadly it is isn’t quite the same and in fact there doesn’t seem to be as many settings either. Despite all this I am going to try and give it a go mainly because I want to try and improve on the standard of photos being added to the blog while I am out and about.
The browser on the Playbook is very good and provided there is a good enough WiFi connection I should be able to log on and check the dashboard and approve any comments that come my way. There are lots of other bits and pieces on the Playbook which we will also make good use of and I am sure it will be a welcome addition to the rest of our travelling gadgets.

Announcing Celebrity Silhouette (Part 2) 19 – 31 July 2013

oceanic

On the 19 July 2013 we will again be boarding the Celebrity Silhouette, this time the cruise will take us around the Mediterranean where we will visit five ports we have not been to before such as Ravenna, (Italy), Catania, (Sicily), Valletta, (Malta), Kotor, (Montenegro) & Split, (Croatia).
This cruise is also unique for us a we have booked it with an American Travel Agent for the first time. The US system does seem to be a lot fairer than the UK one and it means that the deposit is fully refundable right up until final payment is made. Also should the price come down in between the final payment then you can ask to have your price adjusted to suit the new lower price. We were finally swayed by the fact the cruise was £200 per person cheaper than the lowest UK agent and just to top it off we were given $350 OBC as well.

The cruise will finish with an overnight stop in Venice which will give us plenty of time to go and explore.

Day 1	Fri, Jul 19	Venice, Italy /		5:00 PM
Day 2	Sat, Jul 20	Ravenna, Italy / Docked	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 3	Sun, Jul 21	Dubrovnik, Croatia / Docked	12:00 PM	8:00 PM
Day 4	Mon, Jul 22	At Sea
Day 5	Tue, Jul 23	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy / Docked	7:00 AM	7:00 PM
Day 6	Wed, Jul 24	Naples, Italy / Docked	7:00 AM	7:00 PM
Day 7	Thu, Jul 25	Catania,Sicily,Italy / Docked	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 8	Fri, Jul 26	Valletta, Malta / Docked	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 9	Sat, Jul 27	At Sea
Day 10	Sun, Jul 28	Kotor, Montenegro / Tendered	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 11	Mon, Jul 29	Split, Croatia / Tendered	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Day 12	Tue, Jul 30	Venice, Italy / Docked	10:00 AM
Day 13	Wed, Jul 31	Venice, Italy /

Celebrity Silhouette Itinerary 19-31 July 2013

Announcing Costa Pacifica 12 April – 19 April 2013

Our first cruise for 2013 will be on the Costa Pacifica and will be a 7 day cruise out of Civitavecchia. We have used a new TA (http://www.jetlinecruise.com/) for this cruise and so far so good. After this cruise we will have elevated up the Costa Club rankings to Pearl level which is the third tier and if we sail Costa again will enable a few little added benefits.

Costa Pacifica Itinerary 2013

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Fri	Apr	12	Civitavecchia, Italy		7:00pm
Sat	Apr	13	Savona, Italy	9:00am	5:00pm
Sun	Apr	14	Marseille, France	8:00am	6:00pm
Mon	Apr	15	Barcelona, Spain	8:00am	6:00pm
Tue	Apr	16	Palma De Mallorca	8:00am	3:00pm
Wed	Apr	17	Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy	12:00pm	6:00pm
Thu	Apr	18	Palermo, Sicily	8:00am	2:00pm
Fri	Apr	19	Civitavecchia, Italy	8:00am

Norwegian Breakaway Hull Art Revealed

NCL have revealed what artist Peter Max has come up with for the hull art on the Norwegian Breakaway.

Celebrity Constellation – Concierge Cabin #9100 Balcony

It has to go down as the smallest balcony we have ever had. There is just enough room for the table and 2 chairs. It is tapered and the smallest end backs onto a suite where you can look directly into it if the blinds are up. Not what I would want having paid the price for a suite.