StellaTN

I received a $50 celebrity e gift card through my workplace wellness program. Has anyone had success using one like this to pay on their already booked cruise (through a travel agent) prior to final payment (not as deposit on a new cruise)? I had hoped to use it to pay part of our reservation ahead of time for Le Voyage, but I take it that is not possible? No way I can find to use it on the website for restaurants. This is so much more complicated than how NCL does it!

From what I can tell from the FB post - those with a package were having to sign a receipt even if they didn’t go over - so receipts for $0. It started Monday. But they are also saying within a day and a half they stopped it. Either a poorly thought out April fools joke, or something happened on Ascent to make them decide they needed a new policy for Q2, that they then walked back.

Yes

The menu is posted in your app - it’s under dining and then all the way to the right under loyalty and suites. The MDR will accommodate any dietary restrictions- they ask you before every meal.

I think the regular seatings are sold out for those time slots and what you are seeing are for tasting or the other price point. Plenty of spots will open up upon embarkation - you can reserve from the app once you board (albeit at full price). ETA: I believe the new regular price is now $125pp. No more $75.

Awesome! Hey - no shade here. I also prefer to book early and get the times and days we want rather than a package 🙂 Thus why we also book most of our cruises two years out lol. I do think they’ve lost their minds at charging $115pp for Le Voyage - ($277 for two w tip). It’s a shame bc we really enjoyed it last year (at $162 total for the two of us, with tip!) Hope you have a wonderful trip!

I noticed today the restaurant booking for our Feb 23, 2025 Ascent cruise just became available. OP may want to check theirs. Prices are up for Eden and Le Voyage! Went from $60 for Eden to $78 for 2025, and $75 for Le Voyage (base) to $115. We went ahead and reserved two, but will hold out for a sale for Le Voyage.

We went on a Trieste to Athens on NCL Viva in Sept 2023 and we did a San Marino excursion while in Ravenna. We really liked San Marino. I believe others available included visits to the Farrari factory and to see the mosaics of Ravenna. You can get a good idea of what there is to do by looking up excursions for that port on Viator or Trip Advisor. Enjoy your cruise! We loved every port!

We booked the Xcel for Feb 2026. Excited to get one of the V1 cabins with a real balcony. My understanding is that there are only 4 (maybe 6?). Less than a SV, a real balcony and a better location. I don’t think the V1 category was available for the Ascent?

I have an Ascent cruise for Feb 2025 and there are no dinner prices or reservations available yet (I’ve had it booked for a year!). We got great deals on our Beyond March 2024 dinners during the flash sale in Sept 2023. Seems to me they are waiting to price 2025 dinners till they figure out what the market will actually bear. I really wish Celebrity had more variety with their specialty restaurants. They need a Mexican restaurant and a proper italian place on the e-class ships!

We were on the fourth sailing of NCL Viva in the Med in Sept and we were completely shocked at how wonderful the food was. 9 night cruise and we had main dining 2 nights, specialty 4 nights (you get 2 certificates for free w booking and we pre-bought two additional), Mexican one night and tapas one night, both also with fees. Every meal was wonderful. Their new (free) indulge food hall with food-truck like ordering is a game-changer. No need for a buffet and people germ-ing up everything touching and coughing on the food. On Celebrity Beyond & Apex, we liked Le Voyage and Eden, but there was no where near the variety. Everything is steak and seafood over and over again, and it’s almost like they are intentionally avoiding any ethnic foods. Viva is the same size ship as beyond but has 9 specialty restaurants! This is the way. I wouldn’t call our experience with main dining on celebrity BAD (most recent sailing on Beyond was March 2023, next is March 2024) - but it all paled in comparison to our one NCL Viva cruise. Though, it should be noted, our celebrity sailings have been averaging $500-$550/day in all-included fares, and NCL was around $700/day, also all-included. Just some food for thought. You may now proceed to invalidate my opinions/experiences 🙂

This is the article I meant. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ramseyqubein/2023/08/20/7-differences-between-norwegian-prima-and-the-new-norwegian-viva-cruise-ships/amp/

I thought the Harr Travel walk thru on you tube was the best video of the Viva so far. It’s pretty extensive. I also saw a good Forbes article that covers 5 differences between Viva and Prima. There’s a few config/seating changes.

Check the airline policies as well if you will have to fly home!

Thank you so much for the excellent review and pics! We will be boarding in Trieste in 2 weeks. 1. Very interested to see any of the dailies if it isn’t too much trouble 🙂 2. I hear our sailing is sold out - I’m also interested to see pics of the venues with people in them (like Indulge at peak lunch time or Local. All the pics I can find are of empty venues 🙂 thanks again for fielding all these questions! You are the best!