What's with the new overnights?

We are funny creatures us Humans aren't we?

 

Some of us demand that Celebrity "Change Up" their dull old Caribbean routes and when they do, we criticise change. One of those examples of "You Can't Be Everything To Everybody"

 

The change for our impacted cruise is now an overnight in Cartagena, and no stop at Costa Maya. My personal choice would not have been an overnight in Cartagena, but having said that, as I was one of the customers asking for change, I'll just go with the flow and have a good time.

 

I agree that if an itinerary is subject to a potential for change to dropping a port and including an overnight it would be nice to know before we booked.

 

Having said that, if Celebrity were to have taken this format it would be 2 years before they could implement overnights, and we have been demanding "Change" now, not in 2 years.

 

We've never booked a cruise with any specific port of call as the driving reason for the cruise. As we all know itineraries are subject to change, that's the agreement we took when we put down our deposit.

 

My attitude ? It is What it Is I'll sit back and enjoy the cruise. We just don't know if it might be our last one or not, and life is just too short to fuss over this.

Well said!!!! :)

sorry, while I follow your point...not all ports are cookie cutter...Dominica and St Maarten are not at all similar. Dominica is unspoiled and as yet not a shopping port unless local and Indian crafts, spices , There lush waterfalls, and pools....beautiful hiking areas. Beaches not typical sand....no hamburgers! Sorry someone will be missing this wonderful port....

And I didn't mean to imply that all ports are cookie cutter, but there ARE places on St. Maarten/St. Martin to get away from the main shopping area by the port. It may not be Dominica, but in the end it's one Caribbean port exchanged for another. The beaches may not be the same, but if you were planning beach activities you can still do those. If you were planning an island drive you can still do that, etc. Not exactly the same, but not the end of the world, either. I guess I am just more inclined to take a "turn lemons into lemonade" approach. As I mentioned, we had Athens eliminated from our itinerary and instead have an extra day in Istanbul (ship will overnight there before it actually departs). We already planned to arrive 2 days early so don't really need another day in Istanbul, and had a great day planned on Aegina during the Athens stop. I'm disappointed with the change, but it is what it is; getting mad and complaining on Cruise Critic won't change anything, and we're with a group booking and already purchased airfare so can't feasibly switch to another sailing. So we're making lemonade out of the lemons and looking for other things to do during our extra day in Istanbul. Others apparently prefer to get mad and complain about the great injustice of a changed itinerary. To each his own. :)

Our January 10th sailing got Bonaire dropped with the Curacao overnight added and an evening in Barbados. Very disappointed by this change. Bonaire was one of our favorite islands when we took this same cruise this year. Curacao is nice, but great beaches are limited; we always go to the other side of the island to Cas Abao. Don't feel like doing that for two days, and have no idea what we would do off the ship in the evening. We spent about 2 hours walking around Willemstad on our cruise this year and that was plenty. Not much more of interest to see beyond what we already saw. And going out in Barbados at night...um, I don't think so. So far there are no evening excursions being offered that I could see.

One of the reasons we've kept booking this itinerary is because it featured 8 different islands. As others have said, if this was a European itinerary I would be excited as there are so many things to do in places like Venice or The Amalfi Coast, etc.

This change has me really thinking about cancelling. It stinks too because we are booked for a Royal Suite and were looking forward to trying the suite perks. But with all the money we would have to spend, we want the itinerary to be worth the cost.

From what I'm reading in this thread I think Celebrity may be seeing a number of cancels on their hands.

FYI....Royal has an ABC Island (plus others) cruise but you have to cruise from San Juan....looking at that to replace our Infinity Oct 2016, ABC cruise being held in limbo status by Celeb....it is supposed to overnight in Curacao...but may not be going anywhere!

We lost Belize on one of our our Equinox cruises... Belize, with great snorkeling and still a, very natural area, was replaced by overnight at Cozumel...Been there, done that many times...not much there to commend a day and a half stay...sad to lose the stop at Belize but still looking forward to the rest of the itin,

I for one am not happy about the recent change to our cruise to overnight in St. Martin. We were looking forward to the original itinerary, and thought it was perfect. Now we have a ten day cruise on the Equinox, and just four ports. I've lived in the Caribbean, and taken numerous cruises their, and I see no point to overnighting. One if the pleasures of a cruise is the dining and entertainment experience each night, I don't care to go out on an island at night, can't seeing it being better than the ship, plus additional cost and also concerned about the safety aspect. I'm seriously thinking about an alternative vacation.

I certainly have read posts From people who want to stay late in selective ports, but have not read much discussion concerning stayin all night/two days.

Our January 10th sailing got Bonaire dropped with the Curacao overnight added and an evening in Barbados. Very disappointed by this change. Bonaire was one of our favorite islands when we took this same cruise this year. Curacao is nice, but great beaches are limited; we always go to the other side of the island to Cas Abao. Don't feel like doing that for two days, and have no idea what we would do off the ship in the evening. We spent about 2 hours walking around Willemstad on our cruise this year and that was plenty. Not much more of interest to see beyond what we already saw. And going out in Barbados at night...um, I don't think so. So far there are no evening excursions being offered that I could see.

 

One of the reasons we've kept booking this itinerary is because it featured 8 different islands. As others have said, if this was a European itinerary I would be excited as there are so many things to do in places like Venice or The Amalfi Coast, etc.

 

This change has me really thinking about cancelling. It stinks too because we are booked for a Royal Suite and were looking forward to trying the suite perks. But with all the money we would have to spend, we want the itinerary to be worth the cost.

 

From what I'm reading in this thread I think Celebrity may be seeing a number of cancels on their hands.

We are on a cruise with the same itinerary and same changes as Wonderman.

We seem to do the same things on shore as they do and so have the same reaction.

That second day in Curacao will be a "stay on the ship" day for us (as I suspect it will be for a lot of people). So whoever thought these changes might make things easier for the crew has it really wrong.

We were ALREADY staying in Curacao until 11 pm so , as jagoffee said, the "late evening" that some people supposedly asked for was already there.

Plans are pretty much in place for 2016 so we probably won't cancel that cruise but the 3 cruises we have booked with Celebrity for 2017 will probably get cancelled now.

As I've said over and over, it's not the one thing it's the totality of a whole lot of "little" things.

Too late to edit my post above but I forgot to say that the "evening" they've added to our cruise is in Barbados , which might be nice EXCEPT that we're there on a Sunday and everything is closed. :(

We’re losing Bonaire (never been there) on our Cruise. Bummer. Doing an overnight in Curacao. We like Curacao so another day there is fine with us. It would be a bummer if the overnight port was one we weren’t wild about. Leaving Barbados later in the evening is no biggie to us. We don’t plan on getting off the ship in the evening at Curacao or Barbados. We’ll eventually get to Bonaire on one of our future Cruises.

It is all well and good if Celebrity wants to change their cruises to include an overnight - but be forward enough thinking to do it before you offer it for booking. I purchase my cruises due to the stops - I just had one of my favorite ports to come off the schedule to overnight in a port that I am not sure I would even go out at night in. And, its not like you can just change your cruise as you lose so many of the perks that you received when you booked in the first place. Let's face it when you "order" something from a company would you be happy if they substitute the item you wanted for something else when you opened the box? I want to be sure that when I purchase a cruise I am going where it states when I booked. (Obviously except in cases of bad weather, ship issues, etc). I myself feel this is a bad move for Celebrity. Makes me less likely to keep booking so far out.

Love this idea. When I was younger, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Holland used to do this. It was a great way to have dinner on ship and them go out and get in some night life or even go out and have dinner in port. Can't wait tomdomthis with my kids.

How much does the Kids VIP program on a 7 night Caribbean sailing? Are there any discounts for Elite passengers?

Are there any remaining cruises to Bonaire or Dominica? While in general I would be a fan of overnight these seem like losses to me.

Are there any remaining cruises to Bonaire or Dominica? While in general I would be a fan of overnight these seem like losses to me.

Our Jan 8, 2017 Eclipse cruise goes to Bonaire; but they cancelled Antigua to stay in Curacao.

Are there any remaining cruises to Bonaire or Dominica? While in general I would be a fan of overnight these seem like losses to me.

Infinity was sailing to Bonaire on Oct 7, Oct 17, and Oct 27, 2016. The Oct 7 and Oct 17, 2016, sailings have gone missing.

According to Celebrity website the Oct. 27, 2016, sailing is still a go with stops in Bonaire and Dominica with overnight in Aruba. Hope this cruise does NOT go missing.

On celebrity uk site still showing the old itineraries earlier today, so could still book our cruuse with wrong info. Not good.

It is interesting that the email we got from X said that our extra day would be in Curacao; but the new itinerary shows that it is now in Aruba; which, to me, is much better. Since we have almost 600!days till our cruise, I am sure that it will be cleared up eventually.

We're doing a 14 Night Cruise on the Eclipse 3 April 2016. Rumor is Bonaire has been replaced with an additional day into Curacao. We were looking forward to our stop in Bonaire as we've never been there. Bummer!

We too got an email today advising they have removed Bonaire and replaced it with an overnight in Curaçao and a longer stay in Barbados for our April 2016 cruise, same one as you.

Aware changes do happen but we were previously booked on the cruise prior to the April sailing and then changed it (at a higher cost) to the April one as it had Bonaire, so a bit peeved to see it gone and now visiting one less port too.

Still it's months out so there may be even more changes, who knows?!

When I looked at Celebrity's Hawaii cruises, I found two overnights: one on the first day and another at Lahaina. It would be nice to visit more Hawaii ports but I love the idea of having two full days in Honolulu without also reserving a hotel room and buying meals at restaurants. Plus who knows if I will ever get another chance to visit Maui?

There is just one problem with that itinerary: balcony cabins are sold out on the Millie. I hated seeing that because a second day in Honolulu would be awesome and it includes Mount Kilauea. :(

We are funny creatures us Humans aren't we?

 

Some of us demand that Celebrity "Change Up" their dull old Caribbean routes and when they do, we criticise change. One of those examples of "You Can't Be Everything To Everybody"

 

The change for our impacted cruise is now an overnight in Cartagena, and no stop at Costa Maya. My personal choice would not have been an overnight in Cartagena, but having said that, as I was one of the customers asking for change, I'll just go with the flow and have a good time.

 

I agree that if an itinerary is subject to a potential for change to dropping a port and including an overnight it would be nice to know before we booked.

 

Having said that, if Celebrity were to have taken this format it would be 2 years before they could implement overnights, and we have been demanding "Change" now, not in 2 years.

 

We've never booked a cruise with any specific port of call as the driving reason for the cruise. As we all know itineraries are subject to change, that's the agreement we took when we put down our deposit.

 

My attitude ? It is What it Is I'll sit back and enjoy the cruise. We just don't know if it might be our last one or not, and life is just too short to fuss over this.

I will also enjoy my cruise when all is said and done. But IMHO when people were asking Celebrity to change things, I don't think in most cases that wish was related to adding overnights. I think it was a desire to see different ports for a change instead of same old/same old. In fact, that was why we were so delighted to see Bonaire on our cruise, as that is a port rarely included in Celebrity sailings. And of course which port did they drop - Bonaire. As I've said before, changes can be good, and changes can be bad. In our case, this change was bad.

The link posted by Mr. Bill shows our 14 night March 20, 2016 cruise on Eclipse but there is no change in the itinerary. No change showing on my cruise summary either and have not gotten any emails.

I looked at the link also, looks like we have an overnight in Barbados, and no Bonaire.

I will also enjoy my cruise when all is said and done. But IMHO when people were asking Celebrity to change things, I don't think in most cases that wish was related to adding overnights. I think it was a desire to see different ports for a change instead of same old/same old. In fact, that was why we were so delighted to see Bonaire on our cruise, as that is a port rarely included in Celebrity sailings. And of course which port did they drop - Bonaire. As I've said before, changes can be good, and changes can be bad. In our case, this change was bad.

Just as an aside, and to reinforce your point about change sometimes being good, sometimes being bad, in 2004 we were tired of the same old Celebrity and Princess offerings.

So we voted with out money and took a H.A.L. cruise. New ports for us, really enjoyed that part, nice sized ship, great service, really enjoyed that part. The meanest, nastiest bunch of fellow passengers we've ever encountered on any cruise. Didn't really enjoy that part. Just a miserable bunch that to this day we laugh about.

Change is not always all good, but we're not unhappy we took that cruise. There was good, there was not so good, but the experience was overall worth the price of admission.

The change in our upcoming itinerary as previously mentioned is not our first choice but we'll go with the flow and look for the good points rather than focus on the bad.

Come the time we want to focus on being miserable.......................well we know the cruise line we'll be on

So i just went on the Celebrity website and it still shows our original itinerary. (WITH Bonaire).

Some people on our Roll Call have heard from their TAs that the itinerary has been changed but we have not. (She did send an email that our Feb. 2017 itinerary had changed)

Is there any chance that maybe we will be lucky enough to have our original itinerary?

So i just went on the Celebrity website and it still shows our original itinerary. (WITH Bonaire).

Some people on our Roll Call have heard from their TAs that the itinerary has been changed but we have not. (She did send an email that our Feb. 2017 itinerary had changed)

Is there any chance that maybe we will be lucky enough to have our original itinerary?

Our March 13, 2017 Equinox 11-night cruise has dropped Belize for an overnight in Cartagena. Not a big deal, although I have never been to Belize.

I'd rather know if the casino will be open at night ---- probably not. They will save fuel, but lose a little money with closed shops and casinos.

Not that I would cancel and rebook for this, but if I was inclined I would lose a lot. We booked with $300 discount, $300 OBC and 2 perks because we booked AQ. Couldn't match that now since the price has gone up , although there is a little time before final payment in December 2016..

mac_tlc

After reading this thread i checked our cruise planner for our 12 night Xmas and new year cruise on the eclipse in 2016. We now have an overnight in St marteen and are not now going to St Kitts at all. I'm very disappointed, this is likely my first and last Caribbean cruise and I wanted to visit as many islands as possible, in particular St Kitts. I've not heard from celebrity and the UK website is showing the old intinerary. If I cancel I will lose my deposit for the two cabins I've booked and I've also booked the next cruise as well.

It's not a deal breaker I guess but it would have been nice to have had an email or even a message on the website.