mnocket

So if you reprice a booking with All Included, do you lose your included gratuities since they no longer part of the All Included package?

My first Celebrity cruise was on the Galaxy in 1998. My 2nd Celebrity cruise wasn't until 2017 on the Reflection. While the Reflection was newer and larger, as best I can recall the level of service was similar, but I remember the experience in the main dinning room being a bit more formal and upscale in 1998. Since then, I have taken 3 more cruises on Celebrity. The changes over the past 6 years have been far more dramatic than those I remember in the 19 years between my first two Celebrity cruises. To answer the OP's question.... Yes I do believe Celebrity was once a premium brand. My opinion is that the recent changes are a deliberate strategy by the Royal Caribbean Group to transition Celebrity from a premium category to a mainstream line ala RCCL, but with a more adult focus.

Indeed they do. Thanks.

Yes I saw that. However, the other dates mentioned don't make much sense and the Brazilian government hasn't issued a press release on this change yet. I do wonder if this was prematurely posted by the IT department? At any rate, this delay serves me well as I'm traveling to Brazil in December.

This is also my understanding. 👍

lol I admit I much prefer bar soap when showering and can't understand why so many people prefer shower gel. I can't decide if it's just a case of I'm old and stuck in my ways or if shower gel just became a "thing" due to good marketing.

Nice try, but it doesn't really include all drinks does it?

Exactly! My theory is that that is Royal Caribbean Group is looking to merge their Premium category into their more profitable Mainstream category.

lol I just submitted my post and saw you posted essentially the same thoughts while I was writing mine. Great minds think alike!

That's been my choice. X no longer offers the experience I desire. My next 3 cruises are on Windstar, Regent, and stepping down a bit - MSC Yacht Club. I used to be happy with the Celebrity and Princess products, but not so much anymore. So my decision was to cruise a little less frequently, but pay up for a luxury, small ship experience. Do I think Celebrity cares? Not necessarily. I'm sure they would prefer that I trade up to their luxury line Silversea and I'm sure many do. On the whole, it's my opinion that the major cruise corporations are finding that their Premium lines don't generate the same profit per customer as their luxury or mainstream lines do. Hence all these changes to the Premium lines are intended to essentially make them mimic their mainstream product. Their bet is that their loyal Premium customers will either accept the changes or move to a luxury line - most of which are part of the very same corporations. It's a win-win for the corporations as the less profitable Premium lines are essentially phased out in favor of the more profitable mainstream and luxury lines.

I absolutely hate it when there's no rose wine to dunk my pretzels in🥨🍷

I'd look into wifi calling. It's a standard feature of most smartphones. You can easily find instructions for turning it on either through your phones Help function or by searching online. Even better, you can then give it a try at home before you leave so you're comfortable using it once onboard.

I'll bet they have a formed a team to look for "innovative" ways to increase revenue. Such efforts typically devolve into asking "what else can we charge for?".

Probably should look at booking a Chinese, Cuban or Venezuelan cruise line then🤣

I recall complaints a short while back about O reducing ship speed to save fuel and this was resulting in shorter times in port. Is this still a thing?

Per the link in @HonTri post above, the cost will be AUD 152 ($97 USD) and the E-visa online application should be available Sept 1st. So in a few days we should, but may not, finally have our answer. I've been told punctuality is not a Brazilian virtue😁

I also wondered this. Maybe it's just a US thing?

When I check the weather forecast for our travel to Iceland next week, I get very different predictions from weather.com and The Weather Channel. One says upper 50's for the next week and the other says upper 40's. Can we get a weather report from our "on site weather team"? Thanks.

The Brazilian government has said that the online E-visa application will be available 30-days prior to the Oct 1st effective date. On the other hand, punctuality is not a hallmark of the Brazilian culture😁

You joke, but it's actually not entirely far-fetched. Sure years ago many manufacturers stopped providing full-size spare tires unless you paid extra, but recently they've embraced the notion of subscriptions. How would you feel about paying $5 each month for the ability to lock and unlock your car from a distance through an app? What about a $25-per-month charge for advanced cruise control or $10 to access heated seats? In some BMWs, you can pay to unlock automatic high-beam headlights, which dim for oncoming traffic. Many of these features, like the ability to remote start your car from the key fob are built into the car and cost the manufacturer nothing to activate. I'm afraid younger Comsumers are being conditioned to accept this kind of al a carte pricing as normal - we old-timers call it nickel and diming. It seems the cruise lines are jumping on the bandwagon; except they are taking it a step further and also eliminating things that used to be standard in order to save money.

The moment I read the title of this thread I knew what would follow was some people complaining about death by a thousand cuts and other people saying it's a single slice, no big deal. I wasn't disappointed.

This once again proves how different people see things differently - not right or wrong, differently. The quality of the excursions I take are important to me and I don't at all mind doing the research to make sure I get the experience I'm looking for. I find the excursion descriptions provided by the cruise lines often lack the accurate and comprehensive information I need to really understand what I'm getting. That wouldn't be much of a problem if there were reviews of those excursions from prior participants, but most cruise lines do not provide a mechanism for reviewing their excursions. I think we've all read trip reports on CC where people were disappointed that the ship's excursions were overcrowded, stopped for "shopping opportunities", or otherwise turned out to be not what they expected. I find it's usually fairly easy to search online for private tours and then read reviews from people who have taken those tours. I'm guessing in many cases I spend no more than an hour researching each port - so yeah, $190 savings for an hour's work - I'll take it. Even when it takes more effort - like when I'm communicating back and forth with the tour operator to arrange a custom tour or I'm totally unfamiliar with the location - it's worth it to me to get exactly what I want. It's not always about the money savings, but often it is as I can often find excursions nearly identical to the ship's excursions for half the price. Easy money from my perspective, but I understand that many disagree and prefer the ease of booking ship's excursions - there are certainly cases where I also take that route.

That's been my issue. Intellectually, I know no one is keeping track of what I wear and how often I wear the same thing, but I still struggle with overpacking. Given the uncertainty of the weather, I'm going to have to force myself to do a better job of picking what to pack. Oh well, first world problems🙂

Thanks, I'm relieved. If they have a reasonable recline, I think I'll be OK🙂

Wow! That's great. I'll be there in a week and I must say packing for this trip is about as difficult as it gets. The weather in Iceland is so dramatically variable. I know... layers, layers, layers, but it's hard to not overpack.