gergles

The "fountain only" downgrade is an obscene ripoff. I only drink caffeine-free diet sodas, none of which are in fountains.

I called Celebrity and was told that my only option to get those is to upgrade to Premium. If I were to order one, I would have to pay full price for the soda.

Their website https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/onboard-packages/beverage-packages/non-alcoholic-packages lists the caffeine and sugar free drinks as "new flavors", yet they've been around since my first X cruise years ago. It isn't a new thing I'm expecting.

I have a very expensive cruise reserved over the holidays, and if this change isn't rolled back I am cancelling it. Not even kidding.

Being able to buy all the cocktails, wine, and beer I want yet being charged full price for a soda I can actually drink is beyond the pale.

Celebrity Cruises, I hope you're listening. You have about 2 months to roll back this nonsense (or throw on an extra $175 of OBC to make up for the premium package upcharge,) or I will never darken your doors again.

Go ahead, forum dregs, come post the rolling eyes emoji and leave an exasperated comment about how I'd let this "ruin my vacation" and that "it's just $10," as if Celebrity could just tack arbitrary nonsense charges on for anything and we'd all be expected to just shrug and open our wallets, but I'm not exaggerating. This is a dealbreaker.

Quick edit: Their own terrible website still shows that canned drinks are included in Classic. Unreal. http://media.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/content/en_US/pdf/celebrity-cruises-beverage-packages-price-flyer.pdf

Yes, you can, there's a ticket booth on the pier.

That's per glass not per can. Some waiters will also give you the can some don't .

Celebrity does not sell fountain soda, so you should always get the can. You're entitled to it when you pay for sodas a la carte.

(The price has also gone up, to $3.50 before grats, as of September on the Solstice, at least.)

Great! Thanks for the feedback. We are concierge so will do lunch in MDR, but take our time getting there.

They stop serving this lunch pretty early, I think at 1, so keep that in mind too.

As with the rest of the pricing at SO5, it's extortionate, but I did walk by and they are grating real wasabi root for the people who pay for it.

(Never mind you can get pasteurized 100% wasabi paste in packets for free at $1/piece sushi shops in Japan...)

Here is the CDCs recommendation:

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/india

If you are going to eat or drink anything not commercially packaged in India, the Hep A and Typhoid vaccines I'd argue should be mandatory.

I also would strongly recommend malaria treatment, especially going to see the Taj (standing next to a giant still pond for hours.) You will almost certainly not be given mefloquine, so don't let people scare you in to not taking malaria prophylaxis. Atovaquone-proguanil (malarone) has a very low incidence of side effects and certainly beats malaria.

The shows have improved but are still not as good as NCL's.

The performers try really hard but the content is just not that compelling.

On the Solstice they had an option where you could pay a $25 cover charge for SO5 or you could order stuff a la carte. I didn't investigate if there were any item limits if you chose to pay the cover charge.

Classic to premium upgrade is 11.80 per person per day.

I think that since being vegetarian is a preference where everyone with it has a slightly different set of desires, Celebrity relies on everyone to know their own particular limits/etc. and to ask questions like you did to determine if things are unsuitable for them.

I was waiting for him to tell us there was a fee for the chairs, but the didn't come out.

Shhhhh, don't give them any ideas. Next thing you know, they'll install these on the beach:

http://www.themarysue.com/spike-bench/

I've only had one towel animal on X, on a carribbean cruise - they made the beach towels into frogs and put our sunglasses on them.

You should also know that there's no buyers' remorse period for excursions booked any later than the day before you get to the port with the excursion (this means that the first 2 days would never have returnable excursions...)

And on the S-class ships the pools are all freshwater and heated.

I don't want to put down $600 on an onboard account, the prepaid service charge isn't even 1/3rd of that.

Well, too bad. That's how much you have to deposit, or you have to get a credit card.

If you use a debit card, they will place a hold for the same amount when you check in and it may take quite some time after the cruise for the hold to be released and the extra amount to be available in your account again.

I looked at the menu, and it sounds good to me, however my son prefers things a little more simple. Will they make a plain avocado or cucumber roll or a California roll?

California rolls are on the menu.

$47 for 3.2 gallons of water is easily 10x more than you'd pay for it on land...

The automatic gratuities cover all usual and customary gratuities on the ship. Period.

No obc from travel agent...just $300 from perks, not sure why we got an addl $100 with verandah package. We picked $300 obc and drink package as our original 2 perks as the $300 was more than tips.

In that case then it's kind of a tossup, as for an extra $300 you'd get:

- tips (14*7*2 = $196 - but minus the extra $100 OBC that shows up, only worth $96)

- internet (this is really the question on how much you think it is worth to you)

- the extra captain's club points

- potentially a better location (some of the CC rooms are in more desirable locations)

- you might get the premium drinks package instead of the classic one if they're treating this a full go best booking, which is worth another (11.8*7*2 = $165.20)

It's clearly worth it if you actually do get all 4 perks on the CC booking, since one of the perks is another $300 OBC which would be $600 total if your TA is giving you $300.

If you only get $300 OBC total if you do the upgrade, then it depends on how much you value Internet, since I assume you'd pick tips & drinks for the 2 perks on the current booking (again, unless you picked OBC and that's already part of the $400 you're getting for the current booking). It's really confusing to figure out what you have now based on the amounts you listed.

Can't we just tell them to bill our CDN credit card in US dollars? And if so, when do we tell them - at check in or after on board?

Yes, on the Xpress Pass there will be an option to be billed in either CAD or USD. You want to pick the USD option, because all the ships charges are 'natively' in USD. (This option is the second one that says "I want to have my credit card issuer...")

If you pick CAD, they will indeed bill your card in CAD, but they will choose the exchange rate (and they choose an unfavorable one plus add a 3% fee to it.)

I love how Celebrity IT was so incompetent for so long that you're unable to view your OBC balances on your account until day 2 or 3 of a cruise... but once they decide to start withholding OBC balances they can magically do it the second you board. :rolleyes:

Tap water is, of course, drinkable.

If you do choose to refill your own bottle, please get a clean glass and fill the clean glass from the dispenser, then empty that glass into your own bottle without touching the glass to your bottle. This helps reduce the spread of illness.

Wines change on a sailing-by-sailing basis and there is absolutely no guarantee any particular wine anyone tells you about now will be on any future sailing.

You can get all the free drip coffee you want from the buffet, but if you want specialty coffee drinks you'll need to pay a la carte or buy a drinks package.