WorkerBee74

You may just be too soon, I'm sailing in October of this year and the ability to book dining reservations only showed up for me a few months ago.

Absolutely true that their website is SUPER buggy... I'm a software tester by trade and the website is really awful for such a big company! The other really awful cruise website? Royal Caribbean. See a trend? Same company, obviously. I am always on my cruise planner with whichever line I'm cruising a few months in advance, looking for excursion updates, specials etc. So many 'page unavailable', buggy navigation, the fact that I cannot access my reservation unless I first go to "Settings" and then "Upcoming Cruises" - if I click "Manage Reservation" off the hop, I get "The information entered does not match our records, verify information entered is correct and try again" And then,and my PERSONAL favourite when I try to pay for anything - "First and Last Name may only contain letters and HYPHENS". I have a hyphenated first name and a hyphenated last name (yeah, I know, I am used to running it all together on all kinds of sites). When I remove the HYPHENS, it lets me submit just fine - when it specifically says hyphens are fine but then they're not.... UGH. Carnival, for all their faults, has a way better website - come on RC, step up your game.

Good to know - thanks so much. We are not going to be at Eden for dinner but we most definitely will be at the lounge!

I have the EXACT same question as you - it would be awesome to get to Classic 'pre-cruise'! Hopefully me quoting this will bump it up to someone who might know.

We are cruising on Edge in October and I'm just wondering how the shows work at Eden. Do you have to book dinner to see the shows? Can you watch from the bar? Or is it just for those dining there at night?

Question for the experts here... this is the Classic Drink package on my invoice right? (Booked under "Always Included" "YWF9-BEVCLINGRAT1" Just made our final payment today!

I guess it depends which way you're cruising... 😉

Awesome to know! I'm OK with that cost because we will easily have a few $15 cocktails in an evening to make up for it. I was just thinking it would make sense to upgrade earlier if the price went up, but at this point it's getting to be negligible. Looks like it's already gone up a few dollars per day (of course) so I sure wish I could have upgraded in February when I originally tried, but I can't worry about that now. If I can't do it easily online I will most definitely do it on the ship 🙂

Perfect! I don't care too much about the Captain's Club discount, I just am hoping to pay the extra $15-$18 day or whatever it is. Unfortunately I missed the "perks" emails earlier this year and was hoping to get a lowly 2 points to have something, but it's all good. We got this cruise for a relative steal so I'm OK with that!

So I can't upgrade to a Premium package without paying the entire full cost of a Premium package? I did not book a cruise-only rate.... I booked under the Always Included rate so I have the Classic package already. I'm not starting from scratch with no drink package at all, I'm upgrading from Classic to Premuium. That doesn't make any sense to me.

And that's why I wanted to upgrade the first time I called! Maybe it's because I'm a lowly - neverCruisedCelebrityBefore guest.. haha. Will see what happens in the coming days, hopefully it LETS me upgrade online but again I'll let you know. If it doesn't I guess I'll go the way of @PTC DAWG and try to upgrade on board, if not, I guess I'll be stuck paying the difference and have hardly ANY cocktails. Annoy. @LIMPIT have you already made your final payment? Seems like things are different for everyone, what a pain haha.

Yeahhhhh I tried that. And they repriced my entire cruise and told me that it would cost me a couple of thousand dollars. Yeah.... forget it lol. So I took the advice of the board here and am waiting until my final payment. Apparently it has something to do with how they 'unbundle' the Always Included components but only after final payment. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of new folks answering those phones, but she sure didn't seem like she knew what she was talking about. If I can do it online I'd much rather vs. getting someone who isn't sure how to do what I'm asking.

Yep, it's really silly TBH. I will definitely let you guys know - I'm just waiting for a new credit card to arrive and I'm wanting to put the balance on there (reward reasons, you know the drill). So as soon as I get it I will be making my payment and posting the experience here.

So I will be able to answer this for you in the next couple of weeks - our final payment is due July 16 for our October cruise and we will be looking to upgrade then - we booked under the "Always Included" rate back in Dec 2020 so currently have the 'Classic' package. I'm gonna need some $15 martinis though as the Martini Bar on the Edge is pretty much our "local" since we are on Deck 3... 😄 The best advice I've received on this for anyone who doesn't know is that if you booked under the "Always Included" rate, you don't want to be looking at the cost for the Premium Drinks Package as advertised, that's if you didn't have any package at all (essentially you've already 'paid' for the Classic package so you're most of the way there). It's totally bizarre that you can't upgrade at any time, but apparently only after you do your final payment does it give you the option to change from Classic to Premium for a pretty small cost like $12/day as @jelayne says. I will let you know!

Wow @mahdnc - that's one heck of a price difference! We were lucky in that we were able to go in the same timeframe and our cancellation was due to a ship move and not a direct COVID cancellation. Hopefully it will work out for you and your children's SOs will understand 🙂 Like @Purplsmurf said, I doubt we'll see these international cruise prices again for what they were selling for at the time - we got a steal on a cruise on Mardi Gras due to two COVID cancellations including a transpacific from Hawaii to Vancouver that was cancelled in April 2020. I REALLY wanted that itinerary, but being able to cruise the newest ship was worth it - we had the most incredible aft balcony and I never would have paid to go in the inaugural season of a ship otherwise.

We have an Oceanview so we have a clothesline to bring - unfortunately no drying on the balcony for us haha!

YMMV of course, but I just about died of glee when I did this yesterday. In December of 2020 we booked a cruise for October of this year - a 9 night on Celebrity Infinity to Spain/Portugal. Our total cost for the Always Included in an Oceanview Cabin was $5086 (Canadian). Fast forward to January of this year when they up and decided to move the ship to the Caribbean and cancelled our cruise.... We were offered a lift/shift to Celebrity Edge - a 10 night itinerary to Italy/France for the same price. I did a mock booking for the same cruise, same cabin class last night... It is.... $8800 Canadian now 😲 Man, it's sure going to make that final pyment in a couple of week SO sweet!!

I'd be interested to hear when/what the special is. We've got our cruise on Edge in October after a week in Spain and are doing carry-on only, so will need to do a few things in the sink but may want to send dresses/pants to the laundry - let us know!

@OttawaJohn was doing some looking for you want here's the details on the 'express' service. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/passport.html Looks like if you were to go to the actual Passport Service centre in Ottawa (not a Service Canada outlet), they could turn you around within 2 business days - you obviously have proof of travel and that's what they want. Not sure if that's feasible for you but if you're going to lose a pile of money it would be worth it! They're saying 9 weeks if you applied by mail or applied at a Service Canada centre - not sure where you applied but looks like the key is that it has to be the PASSPORT Centre in Ottawa to get it urgently if required. Looks like they are both in the Rideaucentre mall - but they are two different offices, Passport Centre is unit 115 and Service Canada is unit 105... Good luck - hope you can work something out in time!

Have you looked into expedited? Small price to pay if you're going to lose all your cruise fare...

So true. We did a 7-day Carribean out of Florida and then another week on land in Florida with another couple. We all were fine after the cruise, they even got a random test on the way home at the airport (Canada) and tested negative. What happened 6 weeks later? They both got COVID, from something at home that had nothing to do with the trip at all. We still haven't managed to get it but we're a bit more 'careful' at home than they are. Basically when I'm on a trip I'm being smart by masking on transport and staying away from theatres/trying to patio and stay outside as much as possible, but I know I'm inviting much more risk than I invite at home.

Don't want to start a big argument because I know your situation is crappy already, but the reason you are asking for the FCC is that you're asking the cruise company to assume the fall for you not having a passport. What about your flights? Unless you have a refundable ticket, I'm positive you'd be out of luck on a refund with them as well. I truly do hope that you can get something back on this... how much longer do you have until you leave? I just read that people in Montreal are literally camping out overight who are supposed to leave this week for France... maybe there's still a chance you can get it in time? Can you choose the expedited option? Might cost a bit more but worth it for what you stand to lose if you can't get an FCC....

It's also necessary to understand speaker-ese... as in the completely muffled announcements from the captain that you can barely hear. Haha... Suggest that it might be helpful to pick up an Italian phrasebook just for 'in port' situations, but the cruise itself is going to be English-friendly as @Jim_Iain states.

Canadians need a passport to get into the US. The cruise is secondary.

100%! How on earth do you expect a cruise ship company to up and tell other countries not to require a passport because you're their customer and you can't get one in time? Seriously, just think about that for a minute. I don't mean to be harsh, but as a Canadian this has been in the news for a couple of years now with warnings to renew your passport ASAP because once restrictions lift there's going to be a mass rush on passports and it's going to be rough. EDIT: I'm kind of beating a dead horse with this comment, but anyone who travels frequently should have heard alllll about this.