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Posts
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Joined
About Me
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Location
Born-&-Raised Buckeye Girl now living in NEAL
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Interests
Fitness, gourmet dining, French Bulldogs, my husband, and libations!
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Favorite Cruise Line(s)
WAS Celebrity--looking elsewhere.
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Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
Preferably a place <65F...not a fan of the heat!
Recent Profile Visitors
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sparkopotamus's Achievements
Cool Cruiser (2/15)
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Thanks! My husband and the couple traveling with us will have fun figuring it out. LOL For my part, Iโm grateful they offer decent non-alcoholic options (beer, wine, and liquors). Cheers!! ๐ฅ๐ธ๐ท๐ฅ
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For those who have switched from Celebrity to Oceaniaโฆ
sparkopotamus replied to lawk's topic in Oceania Cruises
We are Elite Plus on Celebrity. Next year (May 2025) we booked the Xpedition because we didn't want to lose our deposit from the Celebrity cruise we cancelled for May 2024 and replaced with an Oceania Vista itinerary (it seems Celebrity hasn't dropped its standards for the Galapagos itineraries...at least not yet). We are looking forward to our first voyage on Oceania, and will give Viking Ocean a try as well in the near future. -
Hi, thanks for the tip--I saw the Preisman's website with all the menus, etc. VERY helpful! Referencing that page, there are two pages with selections such as Scotch & Whiskey, Cognac, and Louis XIII starting at $25 going all the way up to $360. Would anyone happen to know what the price cap is on any given libation is if one has the Prestige package? (Yes, my husband and I are Oceania newbies! Will be on the Vista 11-21 May. ๐)
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So if one upgrades to the Prestige Package, Embarkation Day counts as Day 1. Is this correct?
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We have a Suite NRD on X. We are changing it to a 3-day itinerary so just not to lose money and will do so before 4 Oct. At the same time we are booking on Viking Ocean. We are Elite +, which clearly means nothing to the new leadership. It has done the math and realized there are savings to be had with eliminating loyalists who get perks. No hard feelings, we are happy to spend our money elsewhere.
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OBC from Redeployment ? (Equinox/Summit/Apex/Constellation)
sparkopotamus replied to rodndonna's topic in Celebrity Cruises
It did for us as well. We initially tried HAL (2010) and cruised with them three more times after that. It wasn't bad but we felt like there might be another line we would like better. So we tried X. Yay! Until now... and honestly even since 2017 we've noticed little changes, minor and slight. But this new deluge of the line being changed to something more like Royal Caribbean is too much. We will most likely change to Viking Ocean, and then supplement that with French barge trips and land trips. -
With all decrements to service, perks, quality, etc., I'm reading about, I wonder if the new X leadership mentality has no issue with loyalists (we are Elite +) leaving. All those perks, e.g., a comp'd bag of laundry, 15% off a bottle of wine, discount on speciality dining, etc., add up. It would seem X continues to scrub its numbers, looking for ways to cut back. I suspect they would prefer a non-perk customer to one who has earned a few. Maybe I'm nuts but that's kind of what I see going on.
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OBC from Redeployment ? (Equinox/Summit/Apex/Constellation)
sparkopotamus replied to rodndonna's topic in Celebrity Cruises
We are doing the same. After this next one we are through with X. We made Elite Plus but with all the changes that they're making who's to say the Captain's Club (CC) perks won't deteriorate as well? And anyway, while nice they aren't compelling enough on their own to keep us on X. And if you think about it, X benefits from people with CC perks like free bags of laundry, discounts on bottles of wine and specialty dining, etc. from leaving the product. -
OBC from Redeployment ? (Equinox/Summit/Apex/Constellation)
sparkopotamus replied to rodndonna's topic in Celebrity Cruises
On Beyond we had a Sky Suite, and we booked it when they were offering $600 OBC (and as we all know, starting 4 October OBC for Retreat cabins as part of an incentive package will cease), so the $200 for the repositioning was added and now we have $800 total. I guess that means they can be stacked. Honestly if you call X and a rep tells you "no", I'd call back because it's not uncommon to receive two different answers to the same question. -
OBC from Redeployment ? (Equinox/Summit/Apex/Constellation)
sparkopotamus replied to rodndonna's topic in Celebrity Cruises
We were originally on the Beyond for May 2024. In late June this year we received an email from X that said they were shifting Beyond to the Caribbean, and we had 14 days to choose a new booking. They offered us $200 OBC, which was visible to the X agent when we called to rebook on Equinox.