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prim8keeper

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About Me

  • Location
    Atlanta, Georgia
  • Interests
    Travel, Food & Peloton
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Celebrity
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Alaska

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  1. We too are moving over to Regent from Celebrity for similar reasons. I think this point gets lost on a lot of people. We were on Edge last month and less than thrilled with many of the changes. However, even with all the changes having booked that cruise years ago we knew booking another line would end up costing significantly more. I do wonder how many others out there are in a similar boat. It could result in bookings staying higher than they otherwise might especially for lines moving to non refundable deposits. We started sailing X in 2011 when we were in our late 20’s. Funny enough now that we are moving more into who they are targeting at 37 and 41 we are moving on to Regent.
  2. Like a few others in this thread we decided to book with Windstar for Tahiti in 2025. We booked during one of their sails which included their version of all included (beverage package, WiFi, OBC and gratuities) at the base price. We are doing their 7 day sailing which visits several of the islands (Moorea, Raiatea, Taha’a, Bora Bora and Huahine) out of Papeete. One thing that I also discovered was when a lot of the larger ships visit it is not necessarily the best time to visit which is June through September. On top of that Windstar has various events on two of the island and can stay in port longer. Certainly worth considering given the time to get there, etc. We are thinking of also pairing it with some time on Bora Bora.
  3. We started cruising X in 2011 in our late 20’s, sailing a few times a year. For the most part we have always been happy with what X delivered, even if it was inconsistent at times. The value was at least still there and we were huge fans of the all inclusive model as it made vacation planning that much easier. However, as everyone else has pointed out, rising prices and reduced service is not what I am looking for in a vacation. Especially when you look at what they want for suites now. The constant barrage of changes lead us to book with Windstar for 2025 in addition to looking at other lines. Earlier this year on Beyond was the first time we ever hesitated to book another cruise on board. Our upcoming Edge cruise to New Zealand will likely now be our last. We have even considered canceling that, but having booked it back in 2021 there is no way we could book something else at a similar rate. I would love to be pleasantly surprised, but we are now going in with drastically different expectations than we normally would. We have one final X cruise out there, but we are willing to take the $200 hit on it and just cut our losses.
  4. I agree that the real benefits for FBC are for international flights. We recently purchased flights for our Australia/New Zealand cruise and it was cheaper than what I could get booking directly with the carrier for business class. I did notice though that right after we booked our flights the option in FBC went up in price and they were no longer listed as no risk/refundable before final payment. They are still cheaper than booking with their airline, but not by nearly as much. Obliviously flight prices vary day to day, but based on some of the comments here it did make me wonder if they limit with number of refundable tickets for certain classes/carriers in case people cancel before final payment.
  5. They only sell day passes or passes that cover the entire cruise. On our first Edge cruise we visited every day and made good uses of our passes. We found going in the early evening around 5/6 pm was great as no one else was there and we had the whole place to ourselves. On our most recent Beyond cruise we didn’t use the pass nearly as much. They don’t really seem to offer any discounts on the E class ships. I’m not sure if I would buy the pass moving forward unless I just wanted to use up some OBC. For what it’s worth on the first day you can go and look around the spa areas so it may be worth stopping by in person to try and determine if buying a pass is worth it for you.
  6. We enjoyed Le Voyage so much I confirmed with the staff there that it would be on Ascent. They said that it would be and that they would send some of their team members to open it. It is fantastic! We didn’t do the tasting menu, but next time we are on a ship with it that is our plan.
  7. I once would have agreed about only dining in Luminae. However, on our most recent cruise last month on Beyond our best meals were in Le Voyage and Eden. I would highly recommend both to anyone who finds the menu interesting. Don’t get me wrong, Luminae is still very good, but we didn’t think it was as good as it used to be due to various changes in ingredients and offerings. That said, there also seems to be different menus floating around for Luminae so perhaps we just got one that wasn’t too our taste.
  8. We were on Beyond two weeks ago and dined in Eden and Le Voyage. Both were fully booked while we were there and we saw tables being turned over very quickly so new guests could be seated. We also dined at Le Grand Bistro for lunch on a port day. There were only a few other tables occupied. Like others, we did it in order to use up our OBC. I will say we found both Eden and Le Voyage to be fantastic. The new Eden menu is much improved over the original menu IMHO.
  9. It is interesting to see the variation in how this is being applied ship to ship. We were on Beyond last week and during our stop in GC the pool bar was open and the retreat/retreat deck was serving drinks like normal. We noticed in the retreat areas that they were just keeping track of the room numbers. I assumed they then ran all the drinks through the system once we left GC. The information about the bar closures was in the daily and they made an announcement that morning as part of the daily announcement.
  10. There are reservations for the Pelotons, but you don’t necessarily need to make them. We were on Beyond last week and the way it worked was that the staff would kindly ask people to get off the bikes if they were all in use when we arrived at our reserved time. It is really just giving you priority access to the bike, but depending on when you are working out that may or may not be necessary. For those looking to bring their own shoes just know the clips are SPD, not the typical Look Delta clips. On Edge they let us borrow shoes that were used for the spin classes.
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