Stateroom_Sailor

It looks like you can book in advance if there's a special holiday. Our upcoming cruise is offering Mother's Day Brunch for $29.

That's why you're at $150K instead of $140K.

Interesting. If HAL can change their mind on their deals, do we get to too? Get onboard the ship, "I know I agreed to 3 nights at Pinnacle Grill for $46 each, but there's been a change effective last month, we're now now paying $34 per night."

A customer service agent claimed that I wasn't being truthful with her, about calling in a hour earlier. I had a couple gift cards pop up with an error, and called to inquire about them. The first agent sent new e-giftcards, one that didn't match the quoted amount, and the other was $0. The 2nd agent said that they had no record of me calling, that my story didn't add up, and her co-worker would never do such a thing.

I hadn't considered Seabourn before. $2,700 for 7 nights in a balcony suite, Reykjavik to Copenhagen. A similar itinerary on HAL, 7 nights in a Vista Suite, with a base fare of $2,100. Seaborne includes specialty dining, drinks, in-room mini bar, and gratuities. 🙂💡

Looks like I have a lot to look forward to in May, another cruise spent racing for decent food in port. I will be uploading photos if the cruise line remains the course.

I don't disagree with any of this, other than this is something we should embrace. There's no option to pay in 2019 dollars + inflation for 2019 quality. For people who are here for atmosphere and itinerary only, these changes might be a win-win. Some of us have come to HAL due to downgrades from other lines, and will keep moving along.

Hotels don't get to keep the taxes either. You claimed that HAL was the same price as roadside motels, and I still disagree. I upped the ante by using "fair" rated hotels, in cities with interesting things to do. If we shift to compare nice hotels in desirable areas of town, absolutely they'll match.

HAL wasn't a luxury brand in 2019 either, but the comparison is between now and then. If HAL loses it's edge over the other mass market lines as far as the food and service, it make sense to move towards competing on longer and more unusual itineraries. Some old faces may move along, some new faces may come, and some of us will dabble accordingly.

The math came from a mock booking. I'll attach a screenshot of the cheapest cabin w/o Have It All. I completely disagree that a "roadside motel" costs more than $100 per night. Same dates as the cruise, entry level hotels (rated 3.5/5), in the cities of San Antonio, San Diego, and Orlando.

If I mock book a $700 per week inside cabin, it comes to $2,800 with Have It All, $2,000 without. 7 nights at a roadside motel would cost $700. On one hand the motel doesn't feed you, entertain you, and take you on a journey. On the other hand, the motel isn't making money off a casino, shops, excursions, alcohol, a spa, and uncharge restaurants. We stayed at a resort in Kauai, HI last summer for $135 in Wyndham hotel points per night, so there are times that these two types of vacations can be more competitive. Your real estate example makes sense, but not just for cheap cabins on HAL. There's also entry level cabins on Azamara, Oceania, Viking Ocean, Etc.

The MDR food on our 2011 Carnival Victory cruise was better than our food in Blu on Celebrity Eclipse in 2019. We're experiencing product devaluation across all mass market lines. I think the problem is that these cruise lines built too many ships, as if we'd never have another recession, poop cruise, or global crisis again. Now they're overwhelmed with debt, having to fill up these cabins for too cheap. We're paying $7,000 for our Alaska cruise in a veranda. You're right, if I were paying $1,400 it might be easier to swallow. Our 10 Night Caribbean cruise is outrageous at $8,000 for a suite, all because I didn't want to lose a $600 deposit, I paid for a higher tier. That is getting scrapped as soon as Fall 2024 gets released, probably Mexican Riviera that we can drive to, and in a cheaper cabin.. You're 100% right about longer itineraries. I saw this first hand on our 2019 Celebrity Hawaiian cruise, which was experience supply chain or budgetary shortages. The B2B2B people were the most irritated and outspoken, having experienced it for 4+ weeks from Chile or Argentina.

HAL should never cut significantly from food, just as Royal Caribbean shouldn't cut from entertainment. I am shocked at the latest reviews across the fleet. A few days ago a Holland Rep implied that I was a liar about a prior phone call done an hour earlier, and refused to let me forward the email produced from it. Unless we're pleasantly surprised, we're planning to downgrade our 2024 cruise to burn through our remaining credits, and move on to the luxury-light market.

Haha, has anyone tried Birch Syrup? I stock up whenever in Alaska.

I sailed on a 4 night Infinity cruise on Halloween of 2018. It was the same dining quality in Blu and the buffet that we'd experience in April 2016. There was no shortage of vegetables, in fact I had endless access to asparagus for omelets and pasta stations. It seems like Celebrity is trying to market themselves as luxury line these days, with higher fares. Who knows if the 2019 problems persist, but I doubt the value would make sense for us.

We sailed in April 2019 from Vancouver to Hawaii. I talked to several B2B2B people who had sailed up from South America, who were experiencing the same thing. Knowing how loyalists can be, I would only discuss the problems if someone else brought it up first, and it was still brought up frequently. 1. Missing ingredients, especially fresh vegetables. No hummus in BLU for the bread. They had just restocked chocolate syrup for the first time in weeks. We ran out of maple syrup right after leaving Canada, and ran out of pineapple while docked in Maui! Frozen mixed veggies were added to the buffet the last night, which I am not a fan of, but luckily I was able to get vegetables in port for lunch by that point in the cruise. 2. Unhappy crew. The crew were stressed and overworked, any break had to be used for sleep. Several members vented to me about the situation. A group of young crew tried to get off at midnight in Maui, and they groaned after being denied due to some kind of delay, claiming they never got to do anything. 3. Maintenance. The exterior of the ship looked like a rust bucket. There were no skid strips on the steps going down to the tender. Combined with the damp midnight air, and wet exterior, my wife slipped down the steps twice. Instead of enjoying the sunrise on the mountain, we were in a hurry to get to urgent care. Guest Service claimed that there were no cameras facing the tender area. Sharing this on the Celebrity forum will get you roasted. I actually got accused of shoving my wife down the stairs. Multiple people claimed that if Celebrity's food went downhill, it was my fault alone for not fighting to change it, and now they were all going to suffer. In 2014, the masses were threatening to leave X over the removal of fresh squeezed OJ during breakfast buffet, but when real problems start to emerge, the pitchforks come out. I'm done with the irrational loyalty.

We've also sailed Celebrity, mainly Aqua Class. Our last cruise on Eclipse in 2019 had significant food shortages, especially vegetables. There were also maintenance issues. I assume it was a temporary situation, but it caused us to look elsewhere. I am curious how Azamara is doing after the acquisition? Are the fares cheaper than they used to be? I thought it was more expensive than Oceania, but my memory could be off. We have an Open Passage booking from our prior Celebrity cruise, so it might be time to start planning a cruise!

I had a couple of old gift cards from 2019 - 2020 popping up with an error when I looked up the balances. I called the number on the back of the card to investigate further. The agent told me that the first card had $760 on it, and that the 2nd card had $833 (at least that's what I thought I heard). She claimed that these cards needed to be reissued as new e-gift cards, and quickly processed the first. The 2nd one kept getting rejected, and reprocessed, until $300 was offered. I asked why it was lower, and upon investigation, she claimed that the 2nd gift card was now showing a balance of $88. I called to my TA to make payment on our upcoming Alaska cruise, and only the $300 e-gift card worked. The $760 e-gift card showed a balance of $0. The 2nd HAL gift card agent claimed both of our physical cards, and "new" e-gift cards, were all old cards that I had already used up. She accused me of not telling her the full story, that I hadn't actually called in earlier, and that old gift cards would not be resubmitted to the customer. She claimed that the $760 balance had already been used towards our Eurodam cruise, and that I had just used a $300 gift card unrelated to anything on the table. Like the first agent, she claimed that my 2nd physical gift card showed an inactive balance of $88 remaining, which I didn't pursue. I tried to thank her for trying to clear everything up, but she remained annoyed and suspicious sounding. I can say I honestly don't know what's going on, these inactive gift card balances seem to be quite a jumbled mess. We had lots of cancellations in 2020 like everyone else, which I'm sure doesn't help. I don't appreciate having my integrity questioned without basis. We won't be taking advantage of any more gift card promotions. Should this problem bleed into other areas, we'll shift our business accordingly.

I just made a complaint to Hilton, and got 20,000 Hilton Honor points from regional. The evening manager was reprimanding the front desk clerk right in front of us, and there was no end in sight until that employee took the initiative to brake away from the ongoing lecture. It wasn't bullying in nature, but it was inappropriate to carrying it out in front of us, both by having an audience for the reprimand, and keep us waiting. There was also the matter of denying our food credit, charging us $2.19 for parking, and double charging the room rate, but who's counting? I would explain exactly what happened, the best you can remember it. Leave out speculation. What you saw could be bullying, it could be pushback, it could be an inside joke. Either way, that should be left off the floor, in front of passengers.

We're shifting towards cruising once every two years after buying a couple cheap timeshares off Ebay. We want our remaining cruises longer and exotic, so this is great news.

I know some people cheat in moderation on a cruise, but you're not going to eat like that unless you've got a terrible diet anyways. He was quite overweight. Personally, I try to eat mostly healthy on a cruise, a lot of seafood and vegetables, better than I do at home. Combine that with avoiding the elevators, stick to dry wine, I usually lose a little weight.

They had good food for the money, but that has eroded as well. As of 2015, I couldn't even touch their buffet. Maybe if one likes and sticks to the licensed junk food. I met one guy on our last 14 night cruise, who was committed to eating Boston Creme Pie for breakfast, Guy's Burger for Lunch, and Pizza at midnight. Seems like a dangerous repeating diet to me.

I got the $300 Amex credit by applying $1,000 towards our fare, booked last October.

We're at 29 cruise day credits, if we had only spent a little more on one of our prior cruises! Prior to the pandemic, we had a 16 night cruise booked in a suite, and would have jumped form 1 star to 3 Star Mariners.

I've got it on my Personal Gold. I'm going to give it a shot for our Alaska cruise, rebooked on October 23rd. HAL and/or my TA didn't want to let me have the 150Th Anniversary sale, claimed it wasn't enough savings to be worth the effort, so I cancelled and rebooked. It was $100 cheaper, $300 in excursion credit, plus free White Pass Rail tours tickets. If that means we save an extra $300 with this promo, well worth it to me!