MamaFej

How about a cruise out of San Diego when Dodgers are on a West Coast road trip and starts the Monday after they played the Padres over the weekend, with an overnight in San Francisco when the Dodgers are playing the Giants, and an overnight in Seattle when the Boys in Blue are there for an inter-league series with the Mariners? (I'm so easy to please) 😜

I'm just going to jump in and thank the folks who answered for being kind and not rude. It seems to me that the percentage of unkind posts here has been increasing lately, and it is so refreshing to see none of that. Carry on.

Kind of like being at a sporting event, and seeing much of the crowd in your team's colors? It's a shared event, even if you never speak to any of those folks. Heck, even seeing people in the opposing team's colors contributes to the experience. It is a competition, and you can't have one of those without an opponent. Thanks for this. I tend not to consciously care what others are wearing, but your comment made me realize that maybe I subconsciously do.

My niece is a DPT, and this message makes me happy.

I appreciate your position. I'm going to respectfully disagree. Those who paid $60 agreed to pay $60 when the price was $60. Those who paid less paid the agreed upon price, then what they paid for was devalued. Those who book the package now or in the future would agree to the current price. Princess would do well to give those who previously agreed to a price what they paid for. The issue isn't with changing prices. It's with taking away what was previously agreed to. By your logic, anyone who paid more for a cabin than someone who bookied at a different price would be entitled to money back.

This may or may not be helpful. But just in case... When we were cruising earlier this year, we met a couple, one of whom used a walker like this when not using a wheelchair. It folds to a fairly small size. I asked about it because my youngest son was about to travel to visit his big brother. I ended up buying it for him, and he loved it. He could hold it while being wheeled between gates at the airport, and he used it (semi-narrowed) to easily get down airplane aisles. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085LV9GSH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ding ding ding ding ding!!! That's where we are, as well. However, sometimes we are finding we can pay the same or less to get more elsewhere, rather than paying more to get less on Celebrity. We have an October X cruise, as well as five in early 2024, that have been booked for a long time. We are strongly considering canceling up to three of them, in favor of other, potentially better opportunities. For 2025, Celebrity is no longer the first place I'm looking, and it's not in the top 5, either.

I think arrival time can be a huge factor. One arrival in Sydney coincided with two other large planes and queued for 90 minutes to get through immigration and biosecurity. The next time, we were the only plane, and got through in about 5 minutes. I'm glad you got lucky. I'll hope for the same.

Grandfathering Plus and Premiere purchasers into the current program would save enormous amounts of angst, frustration, and stress. It would allow Guest Services folks onboard to do the jobs they are meant to do. It would allow passengers who need GS to get through the queues in a reasonable amount of time, rather than having to wait for all the folks dealing with Plus and Premiere issues. It would earn Princess a tremedous amount of Goodwill. In the long run, that may be worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars more from returning passengers than the $10 or $20 a day in the short run, and alienating those passengers from returning.

They did on cruises out of Sydney that visited New Zealand earlier this year. We couldn’t board until we proved we had the Visa.

If you're okay with somethng less luxurious, you might look at Azamara. While not in depth, this itinerary has several ports in Western Africa, including an overnight in Walvis Bay, Namibia. After that, is this one, with time in northwest Africa and the Canaries.

Fair observation. Duly noted. Time will tell if the "Cut off your nose to spite your face" philosophy pays offl.

I'd like to know, as well. Good Ports are quite enjoyable. Not so good Ports... not so much. I'm a BIG fan of very good Tokaji(s)

All this talk of loyalty has me thinking: Many folks here seem to think X really wants to push aside the cruisers at higher levels of the Captain's Club in favor of younger ones. Those younger cruisers grew up with abundant "Loyalty" programs. Many have oodles of apps on their phones and are completely used to getting something after each 4th or 9th purchase, earning status levels, etc. Getting these folks onboard, so to speak, and reducing the benefits of the loyatly program won't go over with them any better than it is going with the current crop of cruisers. A higher percentage of them are tech-savvy and fluent in the various social media platforms than the 60+ crowd. No one was posting dissatisfaction with Blue Chip Stamps on Tik Tok back in the day, but a frustrated 30-someting can get tens of thousands of views pretty darn quickly these days. All this to say, I'm not sure that diluting benefits and reducing services whilst raising prices will pan out well.

I'm sorry to hear that. I was supposed to have boarded the day you disembarked, but had to cancel 57 days of travel (including 2 other cruises) for non-Covid medical reasons. I hope you have a quick and complete recovery. Long Covid is no fun! Covid is indeed alive and infecting. Four people at my son's work have tested positive in the past two days. My son was training one of them for 7 hours six days before they tested positive. My son testeed last night, and is negative. Take care, and I hope your happy memories of travel comfort you as you recover.

Herein lies a major problem. Shouldn't Celebrity tell us? A small percentage of cruisers gets their crusing information from other passengers online, and an even smaller percentage here. Sadly, when folks find out aboard, many will take out their frustrations on the crew. The executives in Miami don't seem to understand that implementing changes without explaining them, or at least notifying passengers, is unfair to both passengers and crew.

My apologies. I owe you a cup of Tea Forte at Cafe al Bacio should we ever sail together.

We had an Oceania cruise booked for 2020, but... 2020. We've heard very good things about their food. A small bathroom isn't as big a deal for me as for some, as I have been an RV-er my whole life. However, I'm reading about short scheduled port times and lots of cancelled ports. We cruise for itinerary, and port times are a big deal for us. It's good to have options, and I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences.

Those are some pretty significan design flaws. They could learn a thing or two from the RV industry. Or, ya know, navies.

Sounds like an excellent opportunity for "Power Up Points!"

I won't, but I'd like to ask something like: Celebrity has previously partnered with Park West, Goop, and others. Is the addition of indoor vaping an idicator that Celebrity will soon announce a partnership with Juul or Phillip Morris? Or: Based on changes such as shortening itineraries, adding Coco Cay, and watering-down the Captain's Club benefits, there is much speculation that Celebrity wishes to push aside older passengers in favor of younger ones. Is the decision to allow indoor vaping an effort to make sure that these younger passengers don't live long enough to make it to the Elite level and higher?

You might find this thread helpful. There are a few rather pretentious posts. If you can get past them, there is also some good, helpful, relevant information.

In that case, Ganesh has nothing on Celebrity. 😉

Reading this forum, it does seem as though Celebrity's left hand does not know what it's right hand is doing. It also seems as if those two hands might not be on the same planet.

Mental health matters, too. For some folks, cream sauce is comfort food. 😉