Josie201

We booked two SV on the Ascent TA in 2024.  I was a bit surprised SV was $100 per cabin cheaper than the IV category E1.  We wanted SV but pricing surprised me.  

On 10/26/2022 at 5:39 PM, miched said:

I don’t know if it applies to those booked before but the new Future Cruise Certificate allows 18 months to book a cruise.   You aren’t required to book a place holder.   After 18 months if a cruise isn’t booked you the money will be refunded 

 

something else is the names can be changed up until a cruise is booked and then only one name is allowed to be changed 

 

I will get a form and post it

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

I recently purchased two of these certificates on board the Edge.  I told the agent one was for me one for my brother, and we were waiting to book a Transatlantic when itineraries were released (today).  He assured me I could transfer one to my brother.  Trying to book today and my TA says I can't transfer one to my brother.  I should have insisted on board.  Anyone have success doing this?  I mean, not the end of the world, we'll have me and my brother on one, my DH and SIL on the other but a pain. 

10 minutes ago, Bick53 said:

I am no expert on the self administered Covid Test but on the HAL website it states that self tests must be witnessed by a medical individual via teleconference. I'm paraphrasing but it also wants a receipt with the date and passport number for the individual tested. 

I am cruising on the Koningsdam on January 7th for the 24 day Mexico and Hawaii Itinerary and I  wouldn't want to be turned away at the port and trying to find a place to get it done before the ship sails.

I’m on this cruise as well.  The test does not need to be witnessed and no receipt is required.  
 

The notice received is here. 

 

———

NOTIFICATION

Due to the itinerary of this voyage, guests ages 18 and above must be fully

vaccinated for COVID-19 and, if eligible, have received a COVID-19 booster.

Eligibility is determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) guidelines at https://*****/cdc_booster. Only one booster

dose is needed to be considered fully boosted, and boosters may be received any

time up to embarkation.

Guests ages 5 and above must produce a negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or

antigen test) taken within three days before cruise embarkation. Self-tests

are now accepted.

All guests must attest to their COVID-19 vaccination status through Online

Guest Check-In (https://*****/HAL_OLCI). Masks may be required to be worn at

times during your voyage to protect the health and safety of all on board.

Review health and safety information at https://*****/hal_twfaq

Do all cabins have the Elemis bath and shower products, including shower gel ?  

Agree this is simpler.  I really wish they were more robust in verifying date and time though.  

In the past I have been able to have a hold extended for a week by calling in.  

I'm sure most people have figured this out but I hadn't so here's my idea I'd thought I'd pass on to others who are wondering how best to do this.

Lay my passport down.  Lay my husbands phone down beside it with a date/time app showing current date/time.  Lay my test result down beside all that.  Take a photo.  Reverse and repeat for my husband's photo.

Just now, NanaPam00 said:

They aren't loaded on the website yet - Look earlier in this thread for a link to the pdf file for the Europe sailings that open tomorrow. Your TA can go to the Celebrity Commitment website and look at the Deployment Guide....

OK yes I saw the PDF, have picked a cruise, contacted my TA but she said they would only be in the system tomorrow.... 

6 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

I booked at 8am and some rooms in what I was looking at were already booked. Mostly open still but you could see some already gone

My TA said the new itineraries were not loaded into her system or available to book today.  Are some of you able to book these new Europe offerings now?   I also can't see them on the Celebrity website. 

19 minutes ago, D C said:

That is a great space. So unfortunate that it's a smoking area.  Every time we went down there, it was terrible. 

Agree 100%.  Even when we would go to Eden pre-dinner for a drink and music, the door to the smoking area would open and close.  We found we would get a solid whiff of smoke smell every time it opened.  We eventually stopped going for that reason. 

Seems odd as Jim Iain reported four nights of time changes on the 7 night Solstice Mex Riviera last week and this week.  

No creme brûlée on the Edge in November … until one night at Normandie, I heard someone beside me ask for it.  Waiter said of course.  When time for our dessert I asked and the answer was of course.  Had it again a few nights later.  Strange.  

15 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Does anybody have more recent experience in San Diego?  I sail in February and the sailing does have enhanced protocols, but I don't want to waste my time trying to set up VeriFly if there is definitely no longer a VeriFly lane in San Diego.  TIA.

I hear you...

We are sailing in January with enhanced protocols from San Diego to Hawaii.  Just downloaded Verifly today and our proof of vaccine.  It was very simple, but I'm sure it will not be needed.  We will do a self test a few days prior and upload that and/or/plus/maybe take a photo and hope that's all that's needed. 

Put me in the no thanks camp.  
 

I didn’t enjoy having to hop onto the bow of the small boat to get there, the sand was smooth but brownish, the water was freezing, stray dogs everywhere.  Very good shrimp and guac though.  

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

 

Some of the shorex tours have gone back to normal pre-cruise savings for my 3 booked cruises, but many are still at the 35% discount level.

Oh good to know.  I was looking at five or six and they all went back to 15%.  

35% is now gone.  Some smaller savings remain … snoozing and losing   
🫣

49 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

Josie201,  Were the flights you booked "flexible"  or "restricted" ? 

They were flexible but we are past final payment.  
 

I had some success yesterday.  I got a different flight ease agent who understood the 40 minute connection was impossible and she quickly changed our outbound flight to something more reasonable and no charge.  If I’m feeling up to it … I may call back about the overnight flight issue on the weekend.  

We recently returned from The Edge.  We normally had our pre dinner cocktail at the Martini bar.  We had the premium package for what that matters ….   Half the time we were served in the smaller clunkier glasses.  So we started asking for the larger Reidel glasses.  Sometimes with success sometimes not.  One server told us they aren’t being used as much anymore because they are too breakable.  Any similar experience out there?   To me that was a major perk of the martini bar!  

Hello all - just coming in to let you know of the "results" of our enquiries to both the US and Canadian offices regarding our inability to use the Nexus kiosk on our recent border crossings through YUL. 

The good news is that both Canada and the US confirmed to us that our Nexus renewal is in good standing, our cards are activated, and we are considered good to go.  The Canadian "side" did however indicate that our card would not work at the kiosk, as our previous iris scan needs to be updated with biometric data, but that we should continue to use the Nexus lane and should not encounter any pushback.  From the US side we received a lengthy written response which I will paste in here, but basically they concurred we are good to go and our "problem" is a known technical problem. 

We are travelling again in January so we will see how things go then.  I think we at least feel a bit more confident that we can push back a little bit if we get grief in the Nexus lane!

Here is the response we received from US CBP.

______

Thank you for contacting the CBP Traveler Communications Center.
 
We show that you have already activated your card.

Trusted Traveler cards are RFID enabled cards that are utilized primarily at the land borders.  The RFID chipped card allows traveler information to be processes faster, allowing an expedited arrival into the U.S.  The Global Entry card allows GE members to utilize SENTRI and NEXUS lanes at land border crossings entering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.

For travel by air, the machine readable zone on your passport or permanent resident card (green card) will start the transaction at the Global Entry kiosks at airport Ports of Entry.  The GE card is not required for air travel.  The NEXUS card is required for both air and land crossings into Canada.

The issue you experienced while entering Canada is a known technical issue, and CBSA is working to resolve the issue. Please reach out to CBSA if you have additional issues using your NEXUS benefits while entering Canada.

U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has performed a  review of the issue(s) that caused your difficulties while entering the United States or using the Global Entry kiosks.  Your experience was most likely caused by a misidentification against a government record or by random selection of which neither can be adjudicated by this office. We have determined that filing a redress inquiry with the Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) would be the best course of action. 

To better serve the traveling public in redress matters, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has created the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) to serve as a single point of contact for individuals who have inquiries or seek resolution regarding difficulties they experienced during their travel.  DHS TRIP serves as a mechanism to share redress-related information, to facilitate efficient handling of redress requests, and to facilitate communication of redress results across DHS components and other Federal departments and programs, as appropriate, and to facilitate response to the redress request.  DHS TRIP may be contacted online at http://www.dhs.gov/trip or by mail at the following address:

DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP)
601 South 12th Street, TSA-901
Arlington, VA 20598

We regret any inconvenience that you may have experienced.

If you need further assistance, please reply to this email and we will investigate how we may further assist you. 
 
Thank you again for contacting the CBP Traveler Communications Center.
 

15 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

I checked the second leg of my B2B, sailing 7 Jan '23, yesterday and was quite surprised. 9-day Sea of Cortez+Mex.Riviera on 29 Dec has no vaccine nor testing requirements but the 7-day (to three of the same ports) has both! 

 

I don't know if that might change, or if it is that way because the second leg can also be booked as a Collectors Cruise going on to Hawaii.

 

The testing can be self-administered (!) so we will just bring our vaccine cards and two extra self-tests. 

Hi.  I’m on the Collectors cruise Jan 7-31 and now see the vaccine and testing requirements.  Have never used Verifly but downloaded it today.  It doesn’t recognize my reservation number.  So I assume I can bring paper copies of required docs?  Wonder why they don’t incorporate this into Navigator app.  Also have to test three days ahead so I guess take a picture of the negative result ?   What a pain, and a farce.  

Just to close off on this.  I did a chat with HAL this morning.  They gave me a number to call.  I called.  After 20 minutes waiting for a chat person, 20 minutes waiting on hold, I was told their system  was down and to try again later ..... hahahaha.  But, I just tried, and everything is showing now in my Navigator app. 

I had to call re specialty dining problem - they said the site was down and to try again later. 

I booked our three complimentary specialty dinners on line today.  It noted on my screen as confirmed but I didn’t receive any email confirmation.  Maybe I will over the next day or so.  I also wondered if it would automatically show up in my Navigator app like reservations do on the Celebrity app.   The Navigator app for the January 7 cruise is still blank other than the basic itinerary.  

Wow that’s terrible.  
 

what’s so frustrating is they have changed carriers and flights and routing a half dozen times.  Better options exist but I can’t change it?   I may try to call again but have been disconnected so many times on hold for a supervisor …. 

I know many have posted with various frustrations, etc. over the years.  Here's our tale...

We booked using Flight Ease in the Summer of 2022 for our January 23 cruise from San Diego.  Of course, at the time, we had many flight options, prices, routes, etc.  We chose what worked best for.  Then, changes started happening.  I recognize that air carriers are continually changing their flight schedules. 

We are in Canada, so that tends to make our routing options less than ideal for most locations.

Our latest change was sent to us a few weeks ago.  We are now flying down through Washington DC with a 45 minute layover.  We will need to de-ice before leaving our place of origin, so will for certain be late arriving and even if we were on time, 45 minutes is never enough time for a connecting flight.  In fact, if I try to actually book this flight the website will not allow me to as it is not enough of a layover time.  Anyway, there are other flights that day from Washington to San Diego so although its a pain I assume we'll get there eventually, with or without luggage.  We have three days pre-cruise in San Diego so I also assume our luggage will find its way to us .... 

On our return flight, they have now moved us to a 10:30 p.m. flight which flies overnight to Newark and then we connect back to our home at a flight at 9:00 a.m. the next day.  Less than ideal to say the least.  There is another flight, on another carrier, that departs San Diego at 11:40 a.m. and gets us home through Toronto at about 10:00 at night (when we would still actually be in San Diego). 

Flight "Ease" wants to charge us over $1000 to change to this flight, as it is prevailing rates.  Also, they claim that since I want to change carriers, there are extra fees.  I thought using Flight Ease gave me access to choosing from various carriers.  I have spent a number of hours on the phone with Flight "ease" reps, been dropped, been disconnected, been transfered to "Princess Cruises" to book a new cruise, and other such fates.  Haven't actually been able to speak to a supervisor or someone who understands that its not "Newark" I object to, its not the carrier I object to, its the overnight flight I object to which I never would have selected. 

Does this explanation of increased fare and lack of ability to change the flight sound right?  Does anyone have any other suggestions of who and how to call to get someone who actually has the ability to assist me?